1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 KERR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT 9 Regular Session 10 Monday, August 9, 2004 11 9:00 a.m. 12 Commissioners' Courtroom 13 Kerr County Courthouse 14 Kerrville, Texas 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 PRESENT: PAT TINLEY, Kerr County Judge H. A. "BUSTER" BALDWIN, Commissioner Pct. 1 24 WILLIAM "BILL" WILLIAMS, Commissioner Pct. 2 JONATHAN LETZ, Commissioner Pct. 3 25 DAVE NICHOLSON, Commissioner Pct. 4 2 1 I N D E X August 9, 2004 2 PAGE --- Commissioners' Comments 5 3 1.1 Consider J.P. Pct. 1 Court Coordinator starting 4 pay at a 17.2 due to prior service with County 15 1.2 Consider request to FEMA for extension of funding 5 of Walk Bridge at Third Creek 18 1.3 Consider request from First Baptist Church of 6 Center Point to close one block of Avenue C on August 14th for a block party 20 7 1.4 Consider Concept Plan for Plat Revision of Hartshorn Subdivision, Pct. 1 25 8 1.5 Consider extension for preliminary plat of The Horizon, Section 2, Subdivision 33 9 1.6 Consider concept plan for Oak Ridge on the Guadalupe, Pct. 4 36 10 1.7 Consider Revision of Plat for Tracts 29 and 35 of Kerr Vista Ranch, Section Four, Pct. 4 40 11 1.9 Consider final plat of C & S Subdivision, Pct. 4 42 1.12 Consideration and approval of a Facility Lease 12 to Mooney Airplane Company 47 1.8 PUBLIC HEARING for Lots 7 & 8 of Saddlewood 13 Estates, Section Three, Vol. 6, Pg. 294, Pct. 1 50 1.13 Authorize County Surveyor to review & verify 14 location of easements on Merle W. Delmer property that were changed in 1991 50 15 1.14 Authorize County Attorney or outside attorney to prepare and record easements that were changed by 16 Kerr County in 1991 53 1.15 Authorize County Surveyor to review & verify lo- 17 cation of easement on south side of Guadalupe River on Ehler Rd., authorize County Attorney or outside 18 attorney to verify ownership of Ehler Bridge 55 1.19 Consider doing lateral transfer for J.P. 2's Court 19 Clerk/Court Coordinator at a 17.2 60 1.10 Presentation by Ray Curtis of Cartridge World - 20 furnishing ink cartridges at a lower cost 67 1.20 Consider and discuss renewal and/or authorizing 21 request for proposal on County insurance coverage 74 1.11 Update on Kerr County First Responder Program 81 22 1.16 Consider approval of Telecommunications Equipment Lease for Kerr County Extension Office 99 23 1.17 Discuss Kerr County Crime Victim Assistance Coordinator 100 24 1.18 Consider request from Environmental Health Dept. Manager to enroll/participate in Leadership Kerr 25 County program, authorize hand check 120 3 1 I N D E X (Continued) August 9, 2004 2 PAGE 4.1 Pay Bills 129 3 4.2 Budget Amendments 129 4.3 Late Bills --- 4 4.4 Approve and Accept Monthly Reports 136 5 5.1 Reports from Commissioners/Liaison Committee Assignments 137 6 --- Adjourned 152 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 4 1 On Monday, August 9, 2004, at 9:00 a.m., a regular 2 meeting of the Kerr County Commissioners Court was held in the 3 Commissioners' Courtroom, Kerr County Courthouse, Kerrville, 4 Texas, and the following proceedings were had in open court: 5 P R O C E E D I N G S 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's come to order for the 7 regular Commissioners Court meeting posted for this time and 8 date, Monday, August the 9th, 2004, at 9 a.m. Commissioner 9 Baldwin, I believe it's your honors this morning. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: It is, sir. I have a 11 special guest that's come in to pray for the Commissioners 12 Court today, and wanted to introduce her. My best friend 13 and my wife, Debbie Baldwin. Debbie, take your liberty, 14 please. 15 (Prayer and pledge of allegiance.) 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you, ma'am. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Ms. Baldwin. At 18 this time, if there's any member of the audience or public 19 that wishes to address the Court on any matter that is not 20 listed on the agenda, they're privileged to come forward at 21 this time. If you want to be heard on a matter that is 22 listed on the agenda, we would ask that you fill out a 23 participation form. It's not essential, but it helps us 24 hopefully not miss you when that item comes up, so we would 25 ask that you do that. But if any member of the public 8-9-04 5 1 wishes to be heard on any matter that's not on the agenda, 2 feel free to come forward at this time; we'd be happy to 3 hear from you. Seeing nobody to come forward, we'll move on 4 to the next portion of the agenda. Commissioner Baldwin, 5 have you got anything for us this morning? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir, I do. I 7 have a couple of comments I'd like to make; bring you a 8 report on the -- we just completed yesterday the 65th annual 9 Cowboy Camp Meeting, and it was -- it was a great time. I 10 would say that a big day or a big night out there, you may 11 have 100 people. Well, two nights this week, we had over 12 350 at one time; filled up the tabernacle, and on Friday 13 night it was overflowing. It was just absolutely one of the 14 most fun times we've ever had. Deb and I both are in 15 leadership out there, and it was just great. Great to see. 16 Judge Barton was out there on Tuesday, and he -- of course, 17 he packed the place. It just was unbelievable. And then on 18 Friday night, we had Clifton Jansky, former country and 19 western star that has gone to the Christian side. And, 20 anyway, it was just a good time, and -- and a good time was 21 had by all. I'm hoping -- Judge, just wanted to remind you 22 that next week, that we have a video teleconferencing -- and 23 I hope you kind of mention that this morning, if you would, 24 just a reminder to us all and what it's about. 25 Plus -- and finally, our budget issue. It 8-9-04 6 1 appears to me that we're running down close to the end here, 2 and there -- in my mind, at least, we will be looking at 3 possibly some major changes in our system. And I want to 4 give the same speech that I gave last year at this time, is 5 -- is that it would be difficult for me to vote for any kind 6 of major change unless we have a plan in place. So, I'm 7 going to recommend that we get our -- the Commissioners part 8 of the budget cranked up next week sometime. I strongly 9 recommend that we come in here next Tuesday morning and get 10 started on -- on our part, because there -- I see some 11 possible, like I said, major changes coming, and I'd really 12 -- and it's going to take a lot of I's to dot and T's to 13 cross before we can put -- replace those changes. And I 14 just think we need to get busy. We're -- we're running out 15 of time here. And, so, think about doing that before we -- 16 before the -- before this day is out, possibly coming in -- 17 I'm going to suggest Tuesday morning. I have to be with the 18 City judge on traffic tickets next Monday, or I'd say 19 Monday. But -- so, Tuesday morning, think about that. When 20 you -- I just think that it's time that we get cranked up on 21 this thing. That's all I have, Judge. Thank you. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Williams? 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Commissioner, are you 24 meeting with the City judge because you're negotiating their 25 removal of their plan? Or is he -- does he have a plan for 8-9-04 7 1 you? 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: He has a plan for me. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I see. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Therefore, his plan of 5 moving into the courthouse is void and null. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I see. I don't have 7 anything, particularly, except I do echo some of the 8 thoughts of my colleague about the budget. I'm sure the 9 Judge has got some meetings scheduled in his mind; he's 10 going to tell us all about that. But we do have some major 11 changes coming up, least of which is the airport, and I'm 12 not certain how we're going to get all the numbers that we 13 need from our friends down on -- down on Junction Highway, 14 but stranger things have happened. I guess that will 15 materialize. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Commissioner Letz? 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No comments, other than 18 maybe a little bit of follow-up on what the other two 19 Commissioners said related to budget, is that I'm presuming 20 that we're not having a joint city meeting. I mean, I 21 haven't heard of one, and we're pretty far along. Which 22 I -- I think is going to add another -- almost a full 23 workshop for to us try to figure out, you know, what we're 24 going to do with our joint operations. That's always been 25 helpful in the past, and I recall get -- receiving an e-mail 8-9-04 8 1 or letter from the City Manager saying that they did not 2 want to do that this year, so it's going to put us at a 3 little bit of a handicap trying to figure out their budget 4 if they're not willing to meet with us. Aside from that, 5 that's the only comment. I do echo -- you know, I'd really 6 like to try to get our budget schedule through September 7 ironed out today, because I have a lot of other meetings and 8 a lot of obligations, other boards and things I'm on as 9 well. So -- I'm sure everybody else does as well. 10 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Couple things on my 11 mind, Judge. One is, I was driving around west Kerr County 12 on Highway 39 and F.M. 1340 this weekend, and it was camp 13 checkout day for a lot of the camps, Camp Waldemar and some 14 others, and Highway 39 and 1340 was congested with a whole 15 lot of campers and their parents who come to Kerr County and 16 leave a lot of their money. And I'm reminded that that's an 17 important industry in Kerr County, and it needs to be 18 supported every way possible. Not only do they spend the 19 money with the camps, but they spend -- spend that money 20 with merchants all over. It's a benefit to Kerr County, 21 provides employment, provides tax base, and stimulates our 22 economy. 23 Second thing I want to talk about was 24 reactions to the proposal to study the benefits of 25 additional joint law enforcement operations between the 8-9-04 9 1 County and the City of Kerrville and the City of Ingram. I 2 continue to get feedback on it, all of it positive. We've 3 gotten feedback now, at least I have, from three former law 4 enforcement persons, one in the form of a letter to the -- 5 to the editor extolling the benefits of joint operations. 6 Another one from a retired police officer who was with the 7 New York City Police Department and then Las Vegas, Nevada, 8 police department, where a merger was made, and it -- he had 9 a lot of good things to say about the -- the improved law 10 enforcement and the savings to the taxpayers. I got a call 11 from a Jim Mulville, a retired L.A. Police Department 12 officer, and he described to me how he -- in the L.A. area, 13 they merged 44 law enforcement agencies into one, and 14 described the benefits as incredible. 15 And I know in -- in the hill country of 16 Texas, we don't need to take the lead from California on 17 some things, but we can probably learn something from -- 18 from people who've had this experience, whether it's in 19 Texas or elsewhere, and that's the reason for the need for 20 the study team to get -- get the facts on the table so that 21 the government entities can make good and logical decisions 22 about whether or not there's benefit there. The only single 23 nay-sayer I've heard on the issue was in the form of an 24 editorial in one of our local newspapers. And I'm reminded 25 that editorials are -- unlike the front page of the paper, 8-9-04 10 1 don't have to be based on facts, or necessarily based on 2 logic. They're someone's opinion. This editorial points 3 out that we got off to a bad start by not contacting our 4 brothers and sisters in the -- in Kerrville and Ingram. 5 And, of course, that's incorrect; there were contacts made 6 between Kerr County and those two entities. It points out 7 that separate ordinances are difficult to administer and 8 that would be a problem, and that's another red herring; 9 we're already administering separate ordinances and doing it 10 very well. 11 It cites the difficulties that we have with 12 the library and airport as a reason not to do it. That's 13 not a very good example. The writer could have chosen good 14 examples, such as the law enforcement functions that are 15 currently combined between Kerrville and Kerr County; the 16 jail and Animal Control, two functions that are -- that are 17 operating very well and operating at a savings to taxpayers. 18 Imagine if the two bodies decided to deintegrate those two 19 law enforcement functions, what would happen. We'd have two 20 of everything. We'd have two jails, two Animal Control 21 facilities, two managers, and the costs would go up 22 significantly. So, if the deintegration of those two would 23 cause costs to go up, then you have to logically assume that 24 integration of other law enforcement facilities would cause 25 costs to go down. 8-9-04 11 1 Some comments in that editorial about 2 preventing double taxation, I don't quite understand that. 3 The people in the City of Kerrville are already paying taxes 4 twice for several functions, so any savings that would inure 5 to the taxpayers would doubly benefit the people in the -- 6 the taxpayers in the City of Kerrville. The article 7 concluded with a -- seemingly, the recommendation that the 8 study shouldn't be taken, and I can't tell you how strongly 9 I disagree with that. What we need is some facts. We need 10 some competent people to get together that are unbiased, and 11 examine the opportunities and bring to the -- to the three 12 government entities some recommendations. And I sure hope 13 that we -- we do that, and taxpayers benefit from it. 14 That's all. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: If I might add one thing 16 on that, it goes to the -- I think the first point was that 17 the -- you know, the City said that they were not contacted 18 ahead of time. That's -- this -- that's a topic that has 19 come up a number of times, and I don't know how else this 20 body can contact another body without passing a resolution 21 and asking them to work with us on something. I mean, to 22 me, the -- our action was an invitation. And we've had 23 other times we've been criticized for blindsiding, quote, 24 the City, which doesn't make sense, because there's no blind 25 side. We -- you know, we talked about it, discussed it, 8-9-04 12 1 asked the Judge to send a letter over there to ask them to 2 participate. That was the invitation. I mean, the fact 3 they didn't know about it ahead of time -- why would they? 4 It's like, you know, having a birthday party, and before you 5 get the invitation, being asked if you're going to the 6 birthday party. Well, you don't know. So, it's kind of -- 7 it's just -- it's a criticism that we've been levied against 8 us several times, and I don't understand why. But I 9 think -- I'm glad you brought that up. I think it's 10 something that does happen several times throughout the 11 year. 12 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I was wondering if 13 it was an implication there, a suggestion that politicians 14 and other good old boys ought to get together behind closed 15 doors and -- and work on developing public policy. This 16 Court doesn't operate that way. We need to develop public 17 policy out in the open, and we need to solicit -- invite 18 public input, and value that input. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Might have something 20 to do with who initiates the idea. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Anything else, Commissioner? 22 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: That's all I have, 23 sir. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Just a smidgeon this morning, 25 right? Do you know the definition of that term? 8-9-04 13 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Oh, yes, sir. About 2 that big. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: All right. I wanted to see if 4 y'all remember. With regard to the video teleconferencing, 5 the workshop is set for -- 6 MS. MITCHELL: August 17th, but it hasn't 7 been definite yet. We're still waiting to hear back. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: We're trying to firm that up 9 with the people from A & M. We've got it firmed up on our 10 end, but -- which would be a week from tomorrow. I believe 11 that we were trying to shoot for 1:30 -- 1:30 or 2:00 in the 12 afternoon. 13 MS. MITCHELL: 2:00. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: 2:00 in the afternoon. But we 15 haven't got it confirmed from the A & M people. Hopefully, 16 we can get that done. Budget. Let's talk about that just a 17 moment. The tax rolls were certified to the extent that 18 they could have been at the very end of week before last. 19 Last week, the -- the Tax Assessor and the Auditor worked on 20 some projected income numbers. Late last week, I turned in 21 to the Auditor the -- the numbers that I had after speaking 22 with the various elected officials and department heads and 23 going over their respective budgets with them. So, that is 24 now in the hands of the Auditor. We're still waiting to 25 plug into the -- the budget the position schedule; the 8-9-04 14 1 Treasurer is working on that. That will become a part of 2 the personnel portion at the top. I have prepared a 3 separate list of capital outlay items, which I've -- I think 4 is final now. We've drafted and redrafted and added and 5 corrected and so forth, and hopefully we'll be able to get 6 that to you gentlemen this week. I have advised all of the 7 participants in the budgeting process that the capital 8 outlay items and anything with respect to personnel issues 9 that are out of the ordinary would be matters for the entire 10 Court to address. Certainly, they are privileged to appear 11 before the Court and ask for any changes that they may think 12 are appropriate based on what I've done, as is always the 13 case. But that's where we are from my end, and hopefully, 14 if we can get the personnel information plugged in, we'll 15 have the -- the initial starting point document later on 16 this week. I'm hopeful. With regard to the schedule for 17 the workshops, let's get some dates set, and at a minimum, 18 we can start -- start looking at maybe the capital outlay 19 items and the personnel issues. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Fantastic. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Insofar as dates, my best 22 dates are Wednesday and Friday, because I don't have dockets 23 on those days. But, other than that, why -- 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, what do you 25 have on Tuesday? I can't remember. 8-9-04 15 1 JUDGE TINLEY: We've got the mental health 2 docket on Tuesdays. In the afternoons -- generally, I've 3 got some time available on Tuesday afternoons also. So, 4 let's everybody start putting their druthers in the hat; 5 we'll start scheduling. 6 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: My calendar is open, 7 and I'm also anxious to get started. So, whatever you all 8 work out, I'll be here. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Anything else? Let's 10 get down to business, then, gentlemen. First item on the 11 agenda is consider and discuss Justice of the Peace, 12 Precinct 1 Court Coordinator starting pay at a 17-2 because 13 of approximately three years service with the County. Judge 14 Elliott? 15 JUDGE ELLIOTT: Let me first also say that 16 the beautiful Ms. Debbie Baldwin is not only noted for her 17 prayer in the community, as a praying woman, but as a very 18 patient and forgiving woman. (Laughter.) 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Let's go on to Item 2. 20 JUDGE ELLIOTT: Come on, now. Yeah. Any 21 time an employee starts in a department, I think we normally 22 -- the rule is that they start off at the pay group, which 23 in our particular situation is 17, and they would start off 24 as a Step 1. That's specially noted for people outside the 25 county coming into a new job. However, Ms. Elsa Trevino has 8-9-04 16 1 been with the County for three years and is at a Step 2, and 2 that's what those steps -- my understanding, those steps 3 were designed to reward employees for their longevity for 4 the County. And I certainly wouldn't want Ms. Trevino to 5 lose that since she has transferred into our department, so 6 I'm requesting that the Commissioners Court allow her to 7 receive the pay as a pay grade 17, which is what we always 8 have, or we have been this last few years, and as a Step 2, 9 to reward her for her longevity. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge Elliott, would 11 you -- out of respect, Judge Elliott came to me earlier and 12 we had a visit about this, and I wonder if you could 13 possibly cover a couple of other areas. This young person 14 came -- transferred from the County Clerk's office over to 15 you. 16 JUDGE ELLIOTT: That's correct. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And your discussion 18 was about the possibility of her helping out at times in 19 that old department, as well as possibly doing some 20 interpreting. 21 JUDGE ELLIOTT: That's correct. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: In other words -- in 23 other words, she's multi-versatile for -- for the County as 24 a whole. 25 JUDGE ELLIOTT: Absolutely. I believe she's 8-9-04 17 1 already been down one afternoon and helped -- helped the 2 County Clerk's office out and their new employee -- or not 3 new employee, but employee that's doing her old job, and 4 helping her, and she'd be available. I think -- I mean, 5 Jannett and I talked about this move early on, and I let her 6 know that any time the County Clerk needs some assistance 7 from us, if she has some time to set some other things aside 8 and go down and help them out, all she has to do is call. 9 Jannett's done a good job of us working together. I think, 10 as a whole, the County benefits when we have an employee 11 that is cross-trained in two different departments, that 12 they can help both departments. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is basically -- we 14 did the same thing twice at our last meeting. It's 15 basically just rewarding them for the one-year service that 16 any employee gets after one year, so I'll move approval. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 19 approval of the agenda item. Any further question or 20 discussion? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I actually wanted to 22 make the motion, but -- 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, you -- 24 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: You waited. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- I waited too long. 8-9-04 18 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I was trying to get us 2 moving along. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I took a breath. 4 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: One comment, Judge. 5 I believe it's a good personnel practice to -- to hire 6 internally, to give people the opportunity to develop and 7 grow and move into other jobs. So, when we have openings, I 8 think we ought to look inside first, and I'm glad to see 9 this -- this move. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or 11 discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 12 your right hand. 13 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 15 (No response.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Thank 17 you, Judge Elliott. 18 JUDGE ELLIOTT: Always my pleasure. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: The next item on the agenda is 20 consider for approval a request to FEMA for extension of the 21 funding of a walk bridge at Third Creek. 22 MR. ODOM: Good morning. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Good morning, Mr. Odom. 24 MR. ODOM: As you see, this request is 25 basically for -- for the Court, to make sure that you're 8-9-04 19 1 aware of the request that I'm making, and in the form of the 2 County. I've talked to Commissioner Williams and 3 Commissioner Letz in reference to this, and basically it's 4 an outline of what we propose to do, and wanted to put it 5 before the Court before I sent it to Austin. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Move approval. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second, with a comment. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's the way to do 9 it. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 11 approval of the agenda item. Any question or discussion? 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. The -- in my mind, 13 this is just a -- it's a plan. We're not authorizing the 14 funds. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No. That's true, 16 yeah. 17 MR. ODOM: No, it is a plan asking for the 18 time. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Time. Asking for an 20 extension of time. 21 MR. ODOM: For the extension of time. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So we don't lose 23 those dollars. 24 MR. ODOM: Yeah, that 6,000-some-odd dollars 25 that we have. 8-9-04 20 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But -- because I just 2 wanted to make it clear, this is not a -- 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No. The plan has to 4 go to the budget meetings. 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It will. 7 MR. ODOM: Right. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or 9 discussion on the motion? All in favor of the motion, 10 signify by raising your right hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 13 (No response.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. 15 MR. ODOM: Thank you. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, Mr. Odom. The next 17 item on the agenda is consider, discuss, and take 18 appropriate action on a request from the First Baptist 19 Church of Center Point to close one block of Avenue C 20 between China Street and First Street from 1:00 to 7 p.m. on 21 August the 14th of this year for the purpose of staging a 22 city-wide block party that will provide school supplies to 23 the Center Point Independent School District students. 24 Commissioner Williams. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Thank you, Judge. 8-9-04 21 1 The agenda item statement pretty tell sells the case. I've 2 invited a couple folks from First Baptist Church to be with 3 us this morning, and I think they probably filled out forms. 4 This -- this is just a very simple request for a closure of 5 Avenue C between China Street, which is a state highway, and 6 First Street, and that particular block is -- the school is 7 on one side, and the school is not operating right now, and 8 the church is on the other side, and the church is the 9 sponsor, but I'll let these folks tell you. Joyce, come up, 10 please, and your colleague. Tell us what it's all about. 11 MS. BAILIFF: I'm the church clerk at the 12 First Baptist Church in Center Point, Joyce Bailiff. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Give your name to -- 14 MS. BAILIFF: Sir? 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Give your name for 16 the reporter. 17 MS. BAILEY: Joyce Bailiff. And it was my -- 18 my duty to come before y'all, or try to get -- find out how 19 we get permission to close the street. We have a lot of 20 things going on. And since I was the one that wrote the 21 letter, I -- I also wanted to ask our Sunday School 22 Superintendent, Carl Carpenter, to come and speak to y'all, 23 because he's actually in charge of the -- you know, of the 24 project we're trying to do. So, I'm going to let him speak 25 to y'all. 8-9-04 22 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Sure. Come up, Carl. 2 MR. CARPENTER: Morning. My name's Carl 3 Carpenter; I'm the Sunday School Superintendent at First 4 Baptist Church. We'd like to close the street so that -- 5 two concerns. One is the safety of the children. We are -- 6 we anticipate having about 200 school-age children running 7 around in that area, as we have various games and activities 8 for them. And, being not from Center Point, but being in 9 that area a lot, there's a lot of traffic that goes up and 10 down, sometimes not at a very good rate of speed, and so 11 we'd like to kind of block that off so that we don't have to 12 worry about children getting run over, and also give us some 13 room to -- to set up games where they're not crowded. 14 Church's Chicken has also agreed to bring their Chicken 15 Bounce out there, and that will provide them plenty of room 16 to set that up. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The biggest -- the 18 biggest problem in terms of traffic is that which would turn 19 off of China Street onto Avenue C; is that correct? 20 MR. CARPENTER: Yes. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. And I would 22 assume that you're requesting -- you want to perhaps borrow 23 some -- what do you call them? 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Barriers. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Barriers. Borrow 8-9-04 23 1 perhaps a barrier or two from the Road and Bridge -- 2 MR. CARPENTER: That would be helpful, 'cause 3 we don't have any. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And you would be 5 willing to pick all those up and return them to Road and 6 Bridge? 7 MR. CARPENTER: Yes, sir. Let me know when 8 and where. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I would move approval 10 of the request, Judge. 11 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 13 approval of the agenda item. Any further question or 14 discussion? 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have a question of 16 him. In the notes here, it says "provide school supplies 17 for Center Point ISD students." What -- is it like a 18 fundraiser? I mean, are you going to have -- how does that 19 work? 20 MR. CARPENTER: No. We're -- the church is 21 buying them. We've got members of the church that are 22 providing them. They're absolutely free to the children. 23 They just show up, and rather than just show up, pick them 24 up and go home, we're giving them a chance to do something 25 for a couple hours on a Saturday afternoon, blow off a 8-9-04 24 1 little steam. You know, the last big party before school 2 starts. We've got all kinds of activities, bean bag toss 3 and balloon toss. We're going to do some -- shoot some 4 hoops, probably, maybe some volleyball. Just all kinds of 5 activities, just something -- something for them to do. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good. Fantastic. I'm 7 glad the church is in charge of that. 8 MR. CARPENTER: Yes. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you very much 10 for that. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or 12 discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 13 your right hand. 14 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 16 (No response.) 17 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge, I think that 19 Mr. Odom left, but Mr. Johnston is still there. And please 20 make a note of who these people are and what they look like, 21 so when they show up to get a barrier or two, "Road Closed" 22 sign or whatever, let them borrow them and then bring them 23 back on Monday morning. 24 MS. BAILIFF: Thank you, Judge. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you, ma'am. We 8-9-04 25 1 appreciate you being here. The next item on the agenda is 2 to consider a concept plan for a plat revision of Hartshorn 3 Subdivision located in Precinct 1. 4 MR. JOHNSTON: Good morning. This may sound 5 familiar. It was on last week's agenda where we talked 6 about it and he moved lot lines -- Mr. Dan Cowart wanted to 7 move some lot lines. Then he called later, said he had 8 another concept to talk to the Court about where he wanted 9 to combine two of the lots and make a two-lot subdivision. 10 Which normally would be a good deal, but in this case, it 11 involved part of the -- of the county easement as part of 12 the lot, and made -- it created essentially a flag lot out 13 of Lot 2. Dan? Yeah, he's here, if you want to have him 14 come up and talk about his concept. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sure. 16 MR. COWART: Hi. I'm Dan Cowart. I'm here 17 to discuss the concept plan for plat revision of Hartshorn 18 Subdivision. And the plat -- I don't know if you have a 19 copy? Yes, okay. 20 MR. JOHNSTON: They do. They have that. 21 MR. COWART: It originally was 8.8 acres on 22 my original plat when I purchased the property, and then I 23 had it surveyed by Eric Ashley, and it shows as 8.16 acres, 24 okay? The county easement on the right-hand side, 50 feet 25 wide, is approximately 800 feet long. It's been part of 8-9-04 26 1 this 8.8 acres for approximately 50 years, whenever the 2 Hartshorn Subdivision was first divided. The original 3 Hartshorn House is what is on -- you see the house with the 4 circle drive in front of it that's on the front lots? The 5 existing lot line for Lot 7 is right against the back of the 6 house, okay? I'm not sure the reason for that. My 7 assumption is that whenever the subdivision, which consists 8 of some of James Avery's complex now, and then some homes 9 back to the north of there, was originally subdivided -- 10 this is the original Hartshorn House, okay? This is where 11 the Hartshorn family lived. And I believe they just went in 12 and picked out 8 acres at the back of this subdivision, 13 because it backs up to Nowlin McBryde's property. This is 14 the back of the original Hartshorn Subdivision, okay? And 15 they just drew out what they wanted and had it surveyed. 16 That's the only reason I can think of that the lot lines are 17 the way they are, right against the back of the house like 18 it is. 19 Now, the easement, it has a gate and has been 20 gated for I assume the whole time, because it's grown up 21 considerably. The easement has trees in it. There are 22 trees down towards the end of it actually growing in the 23 middle of the easement. If you didn't have the plat, you 24 would not know that there was an easement there. I believe 25 it was originally intended, whenever the subdivision was 8-9-04 27 1 platted, for that easement to be able to be a road to access 2 Lot 5 and Lot 6, okay? The back of this property. And that 3 was never done, because it was one piece of property. On 4 the other hand, I receive four tax statements on this piece 5 of property. So, that gives you a little bit of history and 6 information on the piece of property. I hope that helps 7 out. 8 Originally proposed to take the back two and 9 part of two other lots; Lot 4, and then I don't know the lot 10 back here in the back, but you can see there's a corner of 11 it taken in, and take that and divide it into two pieces of 12 property. And last week I was informed that a county road 13 -- or a County-approved road with a cul-de-sac would have to 14 be added onto that easement about halfway back, okay? And, 15 so, instead of doing that -- I'm not really interested in 16 doing that and putting in a road, okay? Mainly because of 17 cost, and it's just -- I don't see it as benefiting -- 18 benefiting this piece of property at all. And so my 19 proposal now is to go ahead and move the lot line against 20 the back of the house back, and you can see where I've 21 written "new line," because it goes to a point where 22 there's -- that's a little -- I guess a tributary of East 23 Town Creek that flows right where that lot line is at. And 24 so the lot line's in the center of that draw, in that creek 25 right there, okay? And so it just makes that a convenient 8-9-04 28 1 place to take the lot line to. That's the only reason I 2 chose that spot. 3 It also takes in the water well and the 4 septic by moving it back, which -- where my proposal is. 5 Where it is now, the water well and the septic for that 6 house are on Lot 6, okay? And so I want to -- my desire is 7 to move that back. It'll increase the size of the front lot 8 to approximately 3 acres. I would have to have a 9 preliminary plat done on that. The back lot would be 10 approximately 5 acres, 5-plus acres, and would just be 11 one -- one lot -- one piece of property, excuse me. My 12 proposal is that the easement on the right-hand side from 13 the back of the front lot there, which is Lot 7, from that 14 point forward be part of the rear lot as a private driveway 15 coming off of Avery Road, just like the circle driveway 16 does, just past it there, a driveway accessing the back 17 5-acre lot. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Dan? 19 MR. COWART: I believe that's all. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. You -- you 21 covered every bit of it except who your neighbors were and 22 where their kids go to school. But -- 23 MR. COWART: Well, okay. This -- 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, no. I want to do 25 exactly what you're saying that you want to do, but I want 8-9-04 29 1 to add one other item. I really think that it would be best 2 for the future recordkeeping of Kerr County if we officially 3 abandoned that easement. 4 MR. COWART: Right. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But, yes, include it 6 in this back piece of property. And we can call it flag 7 lots; we can call it anything we want to, but I -- I think 8 it's the only way that you can use your property, and use it 9 properly, the way you want to. I agree with you, except 10 when you come back in, I'd like to see us abandon that 11 officially. 12 MR. COWART: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: As any -- get all the 14 county ties and government ties out of it. 15 MR. COWART: Okay. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Question I have is, the 17 new lot line on the back of Lot 7, is that far enough away 18 from the well to meet the requirements in our Subdivision 19 Rules, Franklin? 20 MR. JOHNSTON: The setback rule? 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Setback rule. That's my 22 only comment. We need to make sure that if we're going to 23 redraw the line, let's draw it -- 24 MR. JOHNSTON: Definitely, the center 25 easement will be in the back lot. At least half of it will 8-9-04 30 1 be. Just -- it's just over the line, looks like. I don't 2 know if this -- 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It's hard to tell the 4 scale. 5 MR. JOHNSTON: Hard to tell. Right on the 6 line. 7 MR. COWART: I'm not sure what that number 8 is. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. I mean, I think 10 the -- concept-wise, I -- 11 MR. JOHNSTON: There is a definite setback. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The -- concept-wise, I 13 think it's a good idea. Just makes sense. We're reducing 14 the number of lots. It's a lot cleaner, gets the County out 15 of the whole mess. But I think wherever that line is drawn, 16 it needs to be drawn at a point that it meets the setback 17 requirements for both the septic and the well. 18 MR. JOHNSTON: There's no rule to have a 19 straight line. He can make it go around the well and have 20 the proper setback. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 22 MR. COWART: Right now, where I have the 23 preliminary line, you know, I've walked back and measured, 24 okay? It's -- I've left enough road for -- if there's ever 25 any well work that needs to be done, that a truck -- a well 8-9-04 31 1 truck is able to access it from all four sides. It's 2 about -- I want to say 30 feet, approximately, back from the 3 well to the proposed property line, and for that very 4 reason. I didn't think of the county setback, but just that 5 if you have to do work on the well, you being able to access 6 it. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. The setback -- 8 I'm not even sure what it is for a well, Franklin, but 9 it's -- 10 MR. JOHNSTON: I don't recall that exact 11 number. The sanitary easement's 150 foot. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But it's not going to 13 change anything that much. And it can be a little bit of an 14 irregular line. But, might as well; otherwise, we'll have 15 to do a waiver at the same time. 16 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: My recollection is 17 that the setbacks would apply to Lot 6, not to Lot 7. If 18 Lot 6 did any septic work, they'd have to be that 150 feet 19 from the -- 20 MR. JOHNSTON: Outside. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we could 22 grandfather it, but it's just cleaner to -- you know, to 23 give the setback from both sides if you can. Other than 24 that, looks good. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I have a question, 8-9-04 32 1 just to be clear, make sure I understand. Just the blue 2 shaded area, is that what the Commissioner is referring to 3 to be abandoned, or only a part of that? 4 MR. COWART: No, that is correct. And at 5 this time, the fence line runs on the right-hand side of 6 that property to the right of that blue line, okay? That's 7 the existing and the original fence line. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm. 9 MR. COWART: And so -- I guess that's 10 correct. 11 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What is the access to 12 the existing Lot 5, then -- or 6? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Anywhere he wants it. 14 We'll abandon this, and then he'll build a driveway. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Oh, okay. 16 MR. COWART: In the same place, yes. 17 MR. JOHNSTON: Part of his plat revision will 18 be a variance for the frontage requirement. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah, be a variance on 20 the frontage requirement. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: And that part of the land 22 would actually be owned by whoever becomes the owner of the 23 property there. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Right. 25 MR. JOHNSTON: Abandon that blue part, all -- 8-9-04 33 1 actually, all -- I think it goes back further than that, but 2 all the part that's showing there will be abandoned. Just 3 the blue part. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We need a motion? 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, we really don't need 6 an order. 7 MR. JOHNSTON: Not until the preliminary 8 comes in. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: By way of commercial, 10 if any of you guys like wood and woodwork, go by and see his 11 place. He has some -- there on Harper Road. What's the 12 name of your thing? 13 MR. COWART: T.G.W. Hardwoods and Molding. 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Incredible doors and 15 cabinets, and, I mean, incredibly beautiful wood. Go by 16 there sometime. 17 MR. COWART: Thank you, Buster. Appreciate 18 it. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Send my check. 20 MR. COWART: Thank you, gentlemen. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: See you. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Anything further on 23 that item from anyone? Let's move on to the next one. 24 Consider extension for preliminary plat of The Horizon, 25 Section 2, Subdivision that expired July 14th of this year, 8-9-04 34 1 being located in Precinct 1. 2 MR. JOHNSTON: I think y'all recall Horizon, 3 Section 2, is the front part as you enter from Sheppard Rees 4 through the big gate on top of the hill, where we enter 5 our -- our Sheppard Rees project. According to Charles 6 Domingues' letter, they were just delayed due to weather 7 earlier this year, and they don't -- they're not ready for 8 the final plat yet. The final plat -- the preliminary plat 9 expired in July. They're applying for an extension. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: How long of an 11 extension would it be? Nine -- 12 MR. JOHNSTON: Six months. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Six months? 14 MR. CURTIS: Six months. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I think that we should 16 do this so these guys can -- these people can move on with 17 their business. Historically -- and I don't know if it's in 18 the rules or not, but historically, we have -- when we've 19 given an extension, we give one extension. So, it's -- on 20 this particular item, I'm willing to approve, but I will not 21 do it again next year. They either get it done or come 22 back, start through the entire process again. I move 23 approval of Item 5. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 8-9-04 35 1 approval of the agenda item. Any further question or 2 comment? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Only comment is -- and I 4 believe -- Franklin, help me. Did we add some language in 5 the Subdivision Rules that says you can't extend after it's 6 expired? 7 MR. JOHNSTON: I think we did. I think 8 that's been the policy of the Court; they had to ask for it 9 before it expired. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So I think we need to 11 note that we're -- I think we can do it. I think -- I mean, 12 we can do what we want, but it's a -- 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I do remember that 14 now. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I forgot -- I think it 16 was -- I forget who it was, a year or so ago, or two years. 17 There was -- this issue came up, and -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I do remember. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- we decided we had to 20 do it before. But I think on that one we did it as well. 21 So, a precedent. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This is the last time. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is the last time. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This is the last time 25 we're going to do this. (Laughter.) 8-9-04 36 1 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Maybe. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, maybe. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Till the next time. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Is the extension proposed by 5 the motion commencing to run from the original expiration 6 date or this date? 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, the way I 8 understood him to say that it was for -- oh, the six-month 9 period? 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: From the original 12 date. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Correct. That's good. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: From July 14, then. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or 17 discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 18 your right hand. 19 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 20 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 21 (No response.) 22 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Next 23 item on the agenda is consider a concept plan for Oak Ridge 24 on the Guadalupe in Precinct 4. 25 MR. JOHNSTON: On this plan -- and I think 8-9-04 37 1 Lee Voelkel's here -- I had a couple comments on it first, 2 one being I think Oak Ridge Estates -- Oak Ridge is already 3 a subdivision name, so probably this would need to be 4 modified or changed. Second item, Lot Number 1 is almost 5 entirely in -- within the floodplain. I don't think we 6 should force people to build in a floodplain. It probably 7 should be changed so there's more -- more buildable property 8 outside that area. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Your recommendation would 10 be to make Lot 2 a little bit smaller? 11 MR. JOHNSTON: Yeah, change them around a 12 little bit to get more flood -- area outside of the 13 floodplain in Lot 1. And I think Lee addressed the other 14 issue in his letter, that all these driveways in a row along 15 the state highway would have to be approved by TexDOT, 16 'cause they're all -- I don't know if they have the space 17 that's going to be required. Lee? 18 MR. VOELKEL: Good morning. Lee Voelkel. 19 Correct, I think Frank addressed the issues. Now, we did 20 check with the Clerk's office on the name, so we might want 21 to doublecheck and see if that name is -- if it can't be 22 used, we'll certainly change it, but I did call the Clerk's 23 office to see if there was any duplication, and apparently 24 they said the preliminary was okay to use it. We do have 25 floodplain issues. And, again, the Highway Department will 8-9-04 38 1 address the issue on whether or not we're able to access the 2 lots individually, whether we have to double those up or use 3 some type of driveway easement. So, those issues will be 4 addressed as we approach y'all with the preliminary plat. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Lee, can I suggest 6 something that we just watch out for? 7 MR. VOELKEL: Yes, sir. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: The name of the place, 9 this one here, is Oak Ridge on the Guadalupe. I am sure 10 that there is not another Oak Ridge on the Guadalupe, but 11 there could be another Oak Ridge. 12 MR. JOHNSTON: I think there's an Oak Ridge 13 Estates. 14 MR. VOELKEL: Something very similar to that. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If there is, we want 16 to try to stay away from that, if we can, for the -- 17 MR. VOELKEL: Certainly. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- emergency services. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Ridge Oak on the 20 Guadalupe? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Ridge Oak on the 22 Guadalupe. You can change to it Nueces. Oak Ridge on the 23 Nueces. (Laughter.) 24 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: More descriptive 25 would be Cedar Ridge. I don't think there's an oak ridge on 8-9-04 39 1 that property. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: County Clerk said there 3 is an Oak Ridge on Stoneleigh, Oak Ridge Estates. 4 MR. VOELKEL: I thought there was. I'm kind 5 of getting the word we need to change the name. We'll be 6 glad to do that. We'll address that. 7 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I hope that the 8 Highway Department does not have a problem with adding these 9 additional driveways. The -- the distance between Wagon 10 Wheel Crossing and Waldemar Crossing is about 1.2, 11 1.3 miles, and there are currently 29 drives in that 12 district -- that distance. So, I think the precedent is set 13 that -- if my opinion made any difference, I'd recommend 14 that they be allowed to have drives. 15 MR. VOELKEL: Each individual tract, 16 Commissioner? 17 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yeah. I move to 18 approve. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We don't need to. 20 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Don't move to 21 approve? Concept plan. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: With the checking on 23 the name or changing the name? 24 MR. VOELKEL: We'll go ahead and change the 25 name. I think the consensus is that it's too close to 8-9-04 40 1 something else, and I agree with that. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. Appreciate you 3 being here today. The next item is -- 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We didn't vote on it. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Excuse me? 6 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: We don't have to. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Concept plan. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Concept. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Next item is consider revision 10 of plat for Tracts 29 and 35 of Kerr Vista Ranch, Section 11 Four, located in Precinct 4. 12 MR. JOHNSTON: This is presently a 13 subdivision and it has 10-acre tracts, and he's proposing to 14 divide the existing tracts in half and make them 5 acres. I 15 think he adds one -- one additional lot, and then being a 16 large lot of 30 acres along the back and one over -- I think 17 one additional lot overall from what's existing, plus that 18 large lot. Seems to meet all the -- all the rules and 19 setbacks. 20 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Franklin, there 21 aren't any exceptions? This actually meets our Subdivision 22 Rules? 23 MR. JOHNSTON: They all meet the size 24 requirements, frontages, the existing lot. I think we need 25 to set a date also on this for a public hearing for the -- 8-9-04 41 1 the plat revision. 2 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: What's the -- how 3 much time do we have to give for a public hearing? 4 MR. JOHNSTON: Thirty days. 5 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: What's the next 6 Commissioners Court meeting that's 30 days or more from now? 7 MR. JOHNSTON: Last time I looked it up, I 8 had the wrong date; it was on a Sunday. 9 MS. MITCHELL: September -- 10 MR. JOHNSTON: Probably September 13th. 11 MS. MITCHELL: No, the 14th. I'm sorry, 12 13th. You're right, September 13th. 13 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I move to set a 14 public hearing for revision of plat for Tracts 29 and 35 of 15 Kerr Vista Ranch, Section Four, of Precinct 4 for 10 a.m. on 16 September the 13th. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded. Any 19 question or discussion? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I guess a question, 21 Judge. Since we're changing the subdivision boundary, does 22 that change anything, Franklin, on notification? 23 MR. JOHNSTON: Changing the boundary? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Isn't the -- aren't you 25 adding a lot into this, didn't you say? 8-9-04 42 1 MR. JOHNSTON: Well, it's the same overall 2 boundary. They're just -- he's -- you know, right now 3 they're all larger lots, and he's making them 5 acres. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. I thought you had 5 said that they were adding a -- 6 MR. JOHNSTON: It's not changing the overall 7 perimeter of the lot -- of the two lots. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. All right. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or 10 discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 11 your right hand. 12 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 13 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 14 (No response.) 15 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Thank 16 you. Next item is a timed item, so we'll drop to the one 17 below that. Consider final plat of C & S Subdivision 18 located in Precinct 4. 19 MR. JOHNSTON: This is an acreage of 20 3.66 acres total facing Goat Creek Cutoff Road. It has a 21 water system available in front of all the lots from Aqua 22 Texas, and they're dividing it up into three lots, which are 23 slightly over -- about one and a quarter acres each. 24 This -- this falls under the alternate platting process, to 25 bring it to us on a one-time basis. It's in the ETJ of the 8-9-04 43 1 city of Kerrville, and it's been approved by the P & Z and 2 signed by the city officials. 3 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Franklin, these 4 three -- we're creating three lots, right? 5 MR. JOHNSTON: Correct. 6 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Do our rules 7 restrict this to residential use, as opposed to commercial? 8 MR. JOHNSTON: Only if there are deed 9 restrictions. We don't have any restrictions on the plat, 10 as such. 11 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: So, this is part of 12 Greenwood Forest, and they have the deed restrictions that 13 prohibit commercial -- commercial. 14 MR. JOHNSTON: Well, this was part of 15 Greenwood Forest, and then part of it was abandoned and -- 16 acreage, and now it's being platted again. Right? 17 MR. DIGGES: Yes. When they created the 18 Windmill Communities, they abandoned that section of 19 Greenwood Forest, and this left this portion over here as 20 acreage, and now it's turning back into lots. And I would 21 contemplate that it would be residential, or that the -- the 22 people that live above this in the -- they call it 23 unofficially the Hills of Greenwood Forrest; they're 24 interested in them not becoming mobile home sites, and so 25 there's been some interest in the purchase of these lots by 8-9-04 44 1 those folks above. 2 MR. JOHNSTON: Mm-hmm. 3 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Okay, I've got it 4 properly placed now. There's an elevation right behind it, 5 and there's homes up there on that elevation. 6 MR. DIGGES: Yes, that's right. That's why 7 you have that septic -- 8 MR. JOHNSTON: Lot 3 is at the entrance to 9 the -- to the subdivision. 10 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I would have some 11 real concerns about this if -- if it were -- if these three 12 lots were available for commercial development, but if 13 they're not, then I don't have any concern about it. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think they are. I 15 mean, if they're not in a subdivision, unless there's a deed 16 restriction -- 17 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: There is a deed 18 restriction in Greenwood Forest Subdivision. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This isn't in Greenwood 20 Forest. 21 MR. DIGGES: Right. They have not, to my 22 knowledge, created restrictions for that purpose. Now, it's 23 not -- in their communications with me, it's not been their 24 intent to sell it for that purpose at all, but there are -- 25 I don't believe there are restrictions. 8-9-04 45 1 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Are you the 2 developer? 3 MR. DIGGES: I'm the surveyor. 4 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Surveyor, I'm sorry. 5 Oh, yes, I'm sorry. Who is -- 6 MR. JOHNSTON: Charlie Digges. 7 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Who is the owner? 8 MR. DIGGES: It would be Fred Cannon and Sam 9 Spears. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean, I don't think 11 that we can -- we can't say anything about the use of the 12 plot. I mean, that's really not our business. If a 13 developer chooses to put a deed restriction, he may, but we 14 don't have any authority over determining the use of the 15 property. But I understand -- I thought if I was a 16 neighbor, I wouldn't want it commercial either, but their 17 option is to buy it. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Johnston, does this final 19 plat conform to our Subdivision Rules? 20 MR. JOHNSTON: Meets all the requirements. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: And the prior actions in 22 connection with this particular subdivision have been in 23 accordance with our requirements? 24 MR. JOHNSTON: Prior action? 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, the preliminary, the 8-9-04 46 1 concepts and so forth, everything leading up to this final 2 plat. 3 MR. JOHNSTON: This being an alternate plat 4 process plat, there's no preliminary. This is the first 5 time it's actually been to you. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 7 MR. JOHNSTON: Less than four lots. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Did you say this was 10 or was not in the city's ETJ? 11 MR. JOHNSTON: It is in the city ETJ. City's 12 already acted on it and approved it and signed it. 13 MR. DIGGES: Yes. 14 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Move to approve. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 17 approval of the agenda item. Any further question or 18 discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 19 your right hand. 20 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 21 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 22 (No response.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Thank 24 you very much. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I bet we could do Dave 8-9-04 47 1 Pearce; that's only going to take about two minutes. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah -- I'm looking for the 3 right one. Thank you, I appreciate that. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, you're welcome. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's move to Item 12, 6 consideration and approval of a facility lease to Mooney 7 Airplane Company. Mr. Pearce. 8 MR. PEARCE: Thank you, Judge, and thank you, 9 Mr. Baldwin. I'm good for two minutes. I'm timing. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good deal. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: I think that's what he had in 12 mind. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, exactly. Which 14 building is Building 18? 15 MR. PEARCE: Building 18, back when -- when 16 Mooney released their facilities, there was two facilities 17 that -- the armory building, I guess you could name it, that 18 were released back to the City, 17 and 18; they're both 19 adjoining. Mooney had approached us in May and asked for 20 leasing on a month-to-month for storage on Building 18. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is that the first one, 22 the office -- old office space? 23 MR. PEARCE: The old office is next to it. 24 It has, like, two little wings that stick out -- 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 8-9-04 48 1 MR. PEARCE: -- and a hangar. And what 2 they've asked for is month-to-month while they're renovating 3 a number of their facilities. They just completed one 4 hangar, and they're going right on to the next one, and 5 they'd asked to keep this on a month-to-month lease, 6 understanding that if there's a further permanent use, that 7 we would give them a notification to vacate within 30 days. 8 We looked at the market rates on this. The building is 9 substandard, in our opinion. It has leaks; it has a number 10 of things that need to be updated on it. In assessing that, 11 we actually reduced the proposed rate of 79 cents a square 12 foot, which is about a quarter of the market rate. I 13 reviewed that with the Airport Board, and they concurred 14 with it and recommended the 79 cents, which is about 15 1,160-some dollars a month. We're asking that you approve 16 this lease. It's a little bit not the norm, but it's on a 17 month-to-month lease, and it certainly would help them. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. Pearce, if I recall 19 correctly, back at the time when we did the master rework, 20 I'll call it for lack of a better term, of Mooney, it was 21 contemplated as a part of that overall plan that they would 22 continue to utilize some portion of those buildings, what I 23 call the old Mooney administration building and the adjacent 24 buildings, on -- on a monthly basis for storage and 25 transition purposes. 8-9-04 49 1 MR. PEARCE: They had 30 days to vacate 2 Building 16. They did go a little bit over that, but it is 3 vacated right now -- I'm sorry, 17. And Building 18, they 4 have an aircraft test area in the back that they asked if 5 they could use that until such a time that they need to 6 vacate the facilities. Other than that, they cleared 7 Building 17 in its entirety. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: But I think their -- their 9 temporary use on an ongoing rollover basis was anticipated 10 at the time we reworked their deal, wasn't it? 11 MR. PEARCE: Yes, sir, it was. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I move approval. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second -- I'm sorry, 14 Bill. You want it? See, I'm nice; I will give it up for 15 you. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's okay. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: All right. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 19 approval of the agenda item. Any further question or 20 discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 21 your right hand. 22 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 24 (No response.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Thank 8-9-04 50 1 you, Mr. Pearce. It is now 10 o'clock, so, we will recess 2 the Commissioners Court meeting, and I will open a public 3 hearing with respect to Lots 7 and 8 of Saddlewood Estates, 4 Section Three, in Volume 6, Page 294, located in Precinct 1. 5 (The regular Commissioners Court meeting was closed at 10 a.m., and a public hearing was 6 held in open court, as follows:) 7 P U B L I C H E A R I N G 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Is there any member of the 9 public that wishes to be heard with respect concerning this 10 agenda item, Lots 7 and 8 of Saddlewood Estates, Section 11 Three? Seeing no one coming forward, I will close the 12 public hearing, and I will reconvene the Commissioners Court 13 meeting. 14 (The public hearing was concluded at 10:01 a.m., and the regular Commissioners 15 Court meeting was reopened.) 16 - - - - - - - - - - 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, there's no 18 further action on this issue at all? 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Doesn't appear so. Let's move 20 on to Item 13, consider and discuss authorizing the County 21 Surveyor to review and verify location of easements on the 22 Merle W. Delmer property that were changed by Kerr County in 23 1991. I've got a feeling we're going to get a history 24 lesson from Mr. Letz this morning. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes. 8-9-04 51 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Y'all want coffee or 2 anything? 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll try to do this as 4 quick as I can. This is closely related to the next item as 5 well. What happened, when the Lane Valley bridge was 6 rebuilt in 1991, Kerr County, with the consent of all of the 7 property owners, moved -- or made a temporary easement for 8 the people in Lane Valley to get out during the construction 9 period, which was about six months. That temporary easement 10 then became the permanent easement to what was then some 11 property owned by the Comfort Independent School District 12 and two, three property owners. That -- but that easement, 13 it changed the old easements that all those properties 14 previously had. No legal -- there was nothing of record, 15 anyway, that new easements were ever prepared by the County 16 to give all these people access to their property, and I 17 think it was probably -- I don't know what the problem was; 18 it just never was done. Since then, we now have -- the 19 neighbors aren't getting along quite as well as they were 20 previously, and there's issues on two -- on the legality of 21 the easements, where the easements are and who has access, 22 and if they're public easements or not. 23 So, the first step in kind of unwinding this 24 is -- in my opinion, is to go out -- ask Lee Voelkel, the 25 County Surveyor, to go out and verify where the easements 8-9-04 52 1 are, the current easements. We believe they are -- I just 2 want to make sure that the roads were built exactly where 3 they were supposed to be built. We did the temporary 4 construction easement; verify where they are. We also may 5 need to go back and resurvey out the easement to the 6 property that went to Comfort Independent School District, 7 because the property owner may want the old easement to 8 become the easement, as opposed to the new easement that we 9 created for them. So, anyway, that's still kind of working. 10 But we just need -- first step is to get Lee out there to 11 verify where everything is. I've talked with David about 12 this a couple of times, and even though these are private 13 easements, the County did change them, and I think it's the 14 County's responsibility to sort all this out, 13 years 15 after-the-fact now. So, anyway, I talked to Lee. The 16 amount of money to do this, he estimated, is around $500, 17 and I would recommend -- this is nothing that has been 18 budgeted. I don't know if Road and Bridge has any money in 19 their right-of-way fund or not. If they do not, I recommend 20 this comes out of the Commissioners Court contingency, and I 21 will so move. 22 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second -- third. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 25 approval of the agenda item, to have the County Surveyor do 8-9-04 53 1 the requested work. Any further question or discussion? 2 All in favor of the motion, signify by raising your right 3 hand. 4 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 6 (No response.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Next 8 item on the agenda is consider and discuss authorizing the 9 County Attorney or an outside attorney to prepare and record 10 easements that were changed by Kerr County in 1991. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is the second part 12 of that. I just wanted -- once Lee verifies where all the 13 easements are, we need to get new easements prepared and 14 recorded and signed by everybody. The reason I worded this 15 as "or outside attorney," I was not sure what David's work 16 status was in his office. It certainly makes no difference 17 to me whether it's done by the County Attorney, but this is 18 one of those things that, to me, lends itself to go to 19 outside counsel if David chooses to do that; I don't know. 20 I'd recommend it comes out of the salary line item. I 21 believe he has some excess, not a whole lot, and I don't 22 think this is very much money, but it's purely up to the 23 County Attorney whether he wants to use inside or outside 24 counsel on this. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 8-9-04 54 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: David, do you want to -- 2 just want to -- 3 MR. MOTLEY: You know, we'll -- I don't know 4 exactly what the timeline is going to be on this. You know, 5 we couldn't do a whole lot till Lee gets his work done, but 6 I'm not sure exactly how many total easements we're talking 7 about. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Four. 9 MR. MOTLEY: It might be something we can do, 10 and if not, I would be happy to find somebody else to do it. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: But your motion gives him the 12 option? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: And that was a motion? 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yes, that was a motion. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: And Buster seconded? 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mm-hmm. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: Got that cleared up, didn't 19 we? 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. Look how easy 21 this is. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or 23 discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 24 your right hand. 25 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 8-9-04 55 1 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 2 (No response.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Next 4 item is consider and discuss authorizing the County Surveyor 5 to review and verify the location of an easement on the 6 south side of the Guadalupe River on Ehler Road and 7 authorize the County Attorney or an outside attorney to 8 verify ownership of Ehler Bridge. This is a related item, I 9 gather? 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This is very -- is 11 unrelated, but very close. There are more properties -- 12 neighbors on the other side, and this has really gotten even 13 more complicated. This is a bridge that is an off-system 14 bridge. It's a very low-water bridge; been underwater and 15 not passable a good part of this year. I don't think it's 16 been passable since July -- I mean since April. The bridge 17 is on the list to be replaced, but it's not a high priority 18 for replacement. TexDOT says that their schedule has it to 19 be replaced in about 15 years. That is an unacceptable 20 answer to the new property owners, even though they did buy 21 it understanding that this bridge was that situation. The 22 wrinkle has come up in that one of the property owners has 23 documentation that shows this to be a private bridge that 24 she owns -- she and her husband own. I disagree. I think 25 that may have been the case originally, but I think by the 8-9-04 56 1 fact that the County's done work to this bridge for some -- 2 probably 50-some-odd years -- and, certainly we can verify 3 it through my tenure on the Court, and the previous 4 Commissioner of Precinct 3, Glenn Holekamp, certainly can 5 verify, easily account for the last 20 years or so that work 6 has been done out there. So, anyway -- but we do need to 7 resolve that. 8 She wants us to verify, so we need to figure 9 out how to determine if it's a private or a county bridge. 10 That's the first step. But to make it even a little bit 11 more confusing, the County's position is that we've always 12 owned to the outside of the river, south side of the bridge, 13 which used to be one and the same. However, the river's 14 changed course and has extended itself about 200 feet to the 15 south, so there's this no-man's land between the end of the 16 bridge and the end of the river that we're not real sure who 17 owns and who's responsible for doing any road work on. I've 18 talked with Lee, and the gut feeling is this is probably now 19 owned by the State, which makes both property owners 20 furious. But, anyway, we need to verify that, and we need 21 to verify who has -- who's responsible for that portion of 22 the easement to access this property. So the first step, 23 again, here is to get the County Surveyor authorized to go 24 out, look at the situation and determine -- he needs to 25 determine where the -- I guess where the property lines are 8-9-04 57 1 right there and where the bridge easement is, and then we'll 2 need to get with the County Attorney to figure out who owns 3 the bridge. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Where does this road 5 that crosses this bridge go from and to? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: It goes -- the road is -- 7 it's the first road to the east of Lane Valley Road, and it 8 crosses the Guadalupe and it serves two property owners. 9 And the property owners just -- doesn't really have any 10 bearing on this, but they don't get along very well. 11 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Commissioner, when 12 -- when the bridge is unusable because of high water, is 13 anybody stuck? Is there another way out? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: At this point, no one's 15 living there, because last -- two years ago, it was a real 16 problem. There was some renters living over there, and they 17 couldn't get out, and none of the neighbors would allow them 18 out, and they had to walk across the river to get out every 19 day. And that was -- he's now a football coach; you can ask 20 Gary Jones about that situation if you want to get more 21 details. It's a problem. The -- and where this all is 22 going to lead is that one of the property owners is probably 23 going to come to the County with some sort of proposal to do 24 a temporary fix to raise the bridge, with the County's 25 participation and their participation. 8-9-04 58 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Raze, r-a-z-e? 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Increase the heighth of 3 the bridge on some sort of a temporary -- 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What happens to the 5 200 feet the river changed? What happens to that? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'm not sure. It's a 7 real issue. It's -- it's a real problem, because I'm not 8 sure if it -- from talking to Lee, he believes it's probably 9 now state property, and I'm not sure who has control of 10 that, then, from that easement standpoint, of who's 11 responsible for it. Hopefully -- I don't -- I just don't 12 know. I know the property owners are pretty livid about 13 that, when I told them that may be the situation, 'cause 14 they -- this all came about because they want to control 15 access onto their property, which I don't blame them. But, 16 anyway, it's an interesting situation. 17 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: These situations 18 really present a dilemma. I think there are probably 19 several of them in the county. We just -- Mr. Odom and I 20 just looked at a bridge out in west Kerr County across 21 Johnson Creek last week. Buster knows where it is. And 22 there is a property owner that lives back there. The bridge 23 is -- is almost impassable. You know, next flood it will 24 probably be gone, and the person that lives back there was 25 recently ill, and we had to get a -- a backhoe with a 8-9-04 59 1 front-end loader full of sand to get across that bridge to 2 get him out of there. It's -- and in this case, the -- it 3 is not a County-owned bridge. So -- 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 5 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: But it's a dilemma 6 for people who live behind these kind of bridges. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This one's a county -- I 8 believe it's a county bridge. Be nice if it wasn't, but 9 from the standpoint of, you know, people having -- paying 10 taxes back there, and we certainly -- and the State shows it 11 as a county bridge. But, anyway, so I'll move that we 12 authorize the County Surveyor to review the location of the 13 easement, and also to authorize the County Attorney to 14 determine or verify ownership of the bridge. 15 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Same funding 17 situation? 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Same funding situation. 19 And Lee has said that the cost of his part on this is a 20 couple hundred dollars. So -- 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 22 approval of the agenda item. Any further question or 23 discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 24 your right hand. 25 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 8-9-04 60 1 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 2 (No response.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. I 4 note that Judge Wright is here. Why don't we drop down and 5 pick up her item right quick? I assume she's ready to go on 6 that. Consider and discuss doing a lateral transfer for the 7 court clerk and court coordinator at a 17-2. Thank you, 8 Judge Wright. 9 JUDGE WRIGHT: Thank you, sir, for pushing me 10 ahead on the agenda. I have employed Sandra Trolinger to 11 replace Linda Navarre; Linda's gone back to Louisiana. And, 12 in doing so, I have -- I thought I had all my bases covered, 13 but I found out that I didn't. I need to come before you 14 gentlemen. I need to also see about transferring enough 15 money to pay for Lin's vacation, $546, and then another 16 $200; I've got a temporary employee coming in to move old 17 warrants into the new system. I'm still working out of two 18 systems, and it's very cumbersome. I'd like to see about 19 transferring this out of my Insurance line item, which I've 20 got surplus in. That would be from 456-202 to 456-105, and 21 then from 456-202 to 456-111. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How much? How much? 23 JUDGE WRIGHT: $546 to one line item; that's 24 the vacation pay, and $200 to another line item for 25 temporary help. 8-9-04 61 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Move approval. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What -- approval of 3 what? 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, you're -- 5 you're combining all that together, are you not? 6 JUDGE WRIGHT: Well, it's coming out of the 7 same line item. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'm talking about the 9 two issues. 10 JUDGE WRIGHT: Yes, it's two -- it's 11 employment -- 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The lateral transfer 13 and the money to take care of -- 14 JUDGE WRIGHT: Yes. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: You made a motion? 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I did. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll second, but I have a 18 question. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 20 approval, as I understand it, of the agenda item, plus the 21 transfer of funds to pay vacation to the previous clerk and 22 to provide for temporary help as indicated by Judge Wright? 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes, sir. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My question is, we don't 8-9-04 62 1 have a separate line item for vacation pay. That just comes 2 out of salary. 3 JUDGE WRIGHT: It's not vacation, it's 4 salary. We rolled out her vacation. It's to pay her 5 salary. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So we're just increasing 7 the salary line item? 8 JUDGE WRIGHT: Yes, that's what I need to do. 9 I probably quoted it wrong. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, my question is, 11 I don't see an agenda item here. It didn't specifically set 12 one, but in the backup it talks about the transfer of an 13 employee, and that's the only thing that I'm willing to deal 14 with here today. And -- and my question on that is, it 15 appears -- and help me -- correct me if I'm wrong. It 16 appears that you hired the person and hired them at a 17 certain -- let me finish -- hired them at a certain rate 18 before it was approved by this Court. 19 JUDGE WRIGHT: I found out after the fact 20 that I -- in fact, I talked to my Commissioner about it. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, no, no, no, all 22 the way across. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, it's a lateral 24 transfer. We've done -- this makes the third one we've done 25 now in two weeks. 8-9-04 63 1 JUDGE WRIGHT: I had -- 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Three weeks or 3 whatever. It's still a lateral transfer. 4 JUDGE WRIGHT: I had one week training. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: On that item, Judge, 6 is there any reason why -- we should probably deal with the 7 lateral transfer up, and then is there any reason why Judge 8 Wright couldn't put in a late budget amendment? 9 JUDGE TINLEY: That's exactly what I was 10 thinking, Commissioner. She could get with the Auditor here 11 in just a minute and do a late budget amendment, because 12 he's not presented those yet, to handle those other -- I'm 13 reluctant to do the two budget amendment items. 14 JUDGE WRIGHT: I understand. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Because there's not adequate 16 notice as an agenda item. But I think we can handle them 17 today -- 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We can. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: -- as a budget amendment. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: As a late -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Judge, let me withdraw my 22 second. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Let me rework the 24 motion. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 8-9-04 64 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I move the lateral 2 transfer as presented for Sandra Trolinger, who would be the 3 new court coordinator of Precinct 2 J.P., at 17-2 salary. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 6 approval of the agenda item. Any further question or 7 discussion? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I've got a question. 9 The effective date of July 26th, that is when she began 10 work? 11 JUDGE WRIGHT: Yes, sir. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And you say that you 13 didn't come to the Court for approval of this because why? 14 JUDGE WRIGHT: It's a lateral transfer, and I 15 thought that it wasn't any reason to. I didn't realize I 16 had to. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Is there an increase? 18 JUDGE WRIGHT: No. In fact, my budget will 19 go down $2,500. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Does her -- let's see. 21 Ms. Trolinger, does her scale -- pay scale change in any 22 way? 23 JUDGE WRIGHT: No, sir. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. I don't have 25 any problem with it. 8-9-04 65 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There was a 2 miscommunication between the Judge and I about putting it on 3 the agenda. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 5 JUDGE WRIGHT: I talked to the Auditor's 6 office, I talked to the Treasurer's office, and I talked to 7 Commissioner Williams. I didn't realize I needed approval 8 on a lateral, and it's my mistake. 9 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Judge Wright, I 10 commented earlier on a similar situation that I like to see 11 employees have opportunities to move to different positions 12 and use their experience and grow professionally. I think 13 hiring from inside is a good policy, so I encourage that. 14 JUDGE WRIGHT: Thank you. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think -- on a side 16 note, I think it's something we might want to look at in our 17 personnel policy. There's no reason for these that are 18 going in at a level to come before us. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I agree. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're doing it because 21 of the -- I mean, of our policy that says they have to start 22 at a Grade 1. But if you have longevity increases already 23 there for an existing employee, you ought to automatically 24 go to a 2. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's exactly the 8-9-04 66 1 reason, Commissioner, the premise why I didn't tell the 2 Judge we needed to put it on the agenda. Subsequent to 3 that, we had one come on the court agenda, and then a second 4 one. This makes the third one. But I think you're right, 5 the lateral should be permitted without -- without messing 6 with it. 7 JUDGE WRIGHT: Am I square? 8 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: You're square. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You will be as soon 10 as we vote. 11 JUDGE WRIGHT: I had already talked to the 12 Auditor, but I'll go and -- and get this to him. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: Let me see if there's any 14 further question or discussion on the motion. All in favor 15 of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 16 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 17 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 18 (No response.) 19 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Thank 20 you, Judge Wright. 21 JUDGE WRIGHT: Thank you. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: And why don't you get with the 23 Auditor, and then, when we do that business later, we can 24 handle the rest of it. 25 JUDGE WRIGHT: Thanks. 8-9-04 67 1 JUDGE TINLEY: And let's stand in recess for 2 about 15 minutes. 3 (Recess taken from 10:15 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay, let's come back to 5 order, if we might, back to a timed item on the agenda. 6 It's a presentation by Mr. Ray Curtis. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What number is that? 8 JUDGE TINLEY: That's Item 10. Timed item 9 for 10:30. He wants to make a presentation to us by -- with 10 respect to Cartridge World furnishing us ink cartridges at a 11 lower cost. 12 MR. CURTIS: Morning. My name is Ray Curtis. 13 I own and operate Cartridge World here in Kerrville. We've 14 been in business for a little over five months, and we've 15 been providing service to individuals, a lot of small 16 businesses, saving up to 50 percent on refilled cartridges, 17 as well as laser toners. Right now, an average consumer or 18 business will spend anywhere up to $30 up to $150 on 19 cartridges, either ink jet or lasers. We can provide that 20 same type of quality for about half the price of a new one, 21 and we guarantee our work 100 percent. We also pick up and 22 deliver for the local businesses. And, again, we guarantee 23 our work. Therefore, if there is a problem, we'll take care 24 of it right then and there; you do not have to call 25 companies and say, "I have a problem with my cartridge." 8-9-04 68 1 You can come down to the store, or myself or another 2 employee will come up to the location and take care of the 3 issues. We have over 220 different types of ink available 4 to us, so -- there is not a universal ink that you would 5 use, so quality is very consistent with the original 6 manufacturer's product. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: You have ink jet and laser 8 component packages, both? 9 MR. CURTIS: Yes, sir. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Because I know we have 11 both types of -- 12 MR. CURTIS: Right. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: -- printers at various places 14 all over this courthouse, and I'm sure out at the jail and 15 other places. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think -- I mean, my 17 recommendation would be to meet with each of the department 18 heads and elected officials, because the way we do our 19 budget, they pretty much order their own office supplies. 20 And get with them and, you know, hopefully they'll use your 21 services. 22 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yeah. 23 MR. CURTIS: And one other thing is, we're 24 also adding on printer service -- printer repair service as 25 our next level, so if you do have a problem, we can also 8-9-04 69 1 provide that service. Right now, one of our biggest 2 customers are Sid Peterson Hospital, and they are very 3 meticulous, the type of products they use. So -- and then, 4 of course, the local school district is also about to use 5 our service as well. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I have two 7 questions -- go ahead. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I was just going -- if 9 you need a list, I'm sure Kathy can give you a list of all 10 elected officials and department heads. Contact them, 11 'cause we don't do centralized purchasing. 12 MR. CURTIS: Right. I would like, if 13 possible, to come up, take an inventory of all the printers 14 you have. That way, I can kind of give you accurate 15 pricing. If there's enough business for us, we could 16 definitely lower our price and get you secondary pricing 17 versus regular walk-in customer prices. That will save you 18 additional money. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm sure that those officials 20 will probably welcome you gathering that information. But 21 Ms. Mitchell can give you a -- give you a roster of all 22 those folks, and you can contact them. Hopefully, we'll 23 save some money. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I have two questions. 25 MR. CURTIS: Yes, sir? 8-9-04 70 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Do you refill 2 cartridges -- manufacturer's cartridges? If I have an Epson 3 printer, for example, and I take you an Epson cartridge, 4 will you refill that? 5 MR. CURTIS: Yes, sir. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: As opposed to 7 providing some other substitute? 8 MR. CURTIS: We -- actually, we cover all the 9 bases. We do have the -- what they consider OEM, which is 10 the original manufacturer's cartridge you buy at local 11 places. We also have a compatible -- some of the cartridges 12 are patented; you cannot sell exactly the same thing, but 13 they are as compatible cartridges we sell at a lower price. 14 We also refill in-house as well, so if we cannot provide the 15 refill on an Epson because the chips are bad, then we do 16 have a compatible, which is still significantly cheaper than 17 buying the new one. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How would you respond 19 to various articles, maybe -- I think maybe a lot of us have 20 read about inks like this that are not recommended by the 21 manufacturing -- manufacturer, not being good for the 22 printer? Is that manufacturer's hype, or is that true? 23 MR. CURTIS: Actually, it is against the law 24 to actually say that using an after-market product will 25 damage a printer, 'cause there's no proof. Hewlett Packard, 8-9-04 71 1 which is one of the largest manufacturers of printers out 2 there, supports refilling and recycling. And that's part of 3 the reason we have over 200 inks available to us, so the 4 quality of inks can be consistent with the original 5 manufacturer's quality. And then, as far as the Hewlett 6 Packard, for example, the electronics on the cartridge 7 itself is what costs so much. Since we cannot copy the 8 patent on that, we're able to recycle that particular 9 cartridge and just refill that ink up to a consistent level. 10 We also have a research and development company out in 11 Germany that we use, and as a new cartridge comes out on the 12 market, they will analyze the ink and have the ink available 13 to us within six months to nine months, to protect the 14 consistency of the quality. So, we are always getting the 15 support. As the technology changes, so will our method of 16 refilling cartridges and laser toners. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Mr. Curtis, do you 18 pick up and deliver? 19 MR. CURTIS: Yes, sir, you bet. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: This is getting 21 better. Okay. Kathy is going to get her card and hand it 22 to you, and you're going to go through here and get a roster 23 of all the elected officials and offices, and you're going 24 to contact them and do what? 25 MR. CURTIS: We're going to contact them and 8-9-04 72 1 then see if we could take inventory of all the printers 2 that's available, and then we'll make out a list and we'll 3 give you a price of the cartridges, what our price is. 4 Right now, I don't know who you're using; I don't know if 5 you're having to buy a brand new one. If you're having to 6 do that, then we could save you tons of money. If you are 7 having to use a compatible cartridge from an out-of-town 8 source, again, we could probably match the price. One thing 9 we don't want to do is we don't want to jeopardize our 10 quality of our product to lower the price just to get 11 your -- earn your business. Right now, our biggest thing is 12 to provide the best service, best product for what it's 13 worth. I don't believe in going down $5 on a cartridge just 14 so I can earn your business, because there has to be 15 something -- there's a reason why a particular cartridge is 16 going to be cheaper than my product, and a lot of times it's 17 because the -- they are compromising the product and the 18 quality. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: And you're local. 20 MR. CURTIS: I am local. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you. 22 MR. CURTIS: And I am also in Buster's 23 precinct. So -- 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Oh, I didn't realize 25 that. The -- to answer that question, there are some 8-9-04 73 1 offices here in the courthouse that are using him. There 2 are some that use some outside company, and then there's 3 some of us dummies that are still buying brand-new 4 cartridges every time. So, I just thought it would be a 5 good idea to take a peek under the hood about this, and so, 6 great. We're off and running. Thank you, Mr. Curtis. 7 MR. CURTIS: Thank you. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Appreciate you being here. 9 MR. CURTIS: Thank you. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: The next item on the agenda, 11 we've got a timed item on the First Responders. We're not 12 quite ready for that. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: He's not here. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Consider and discuss approval 15 of a telecommunications equipment lease with Kerr County 16 Extension Office. Where's Mr. Motley? 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What number is that? 18 JUDGE TINLEY: That was 16. We can come back 19 to that. Why don't we go with Item 18, consider, discuss, 20 and take appropriate action -- 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: He just left. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Oh. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Lost him. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: They're bailing out on me. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: On 17, I don't know how 8-9-04 74 1 bad Mr. Motley wants to be here. I can tell you the general 2 concept of it. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's go to Item 20, then, if 4 we could. Consider and discuss renewals and/or authorizing 5 request for proposal on County insurance coverage. I put 6 this on the agenda because the Auditor indicated he had 7 received a TWX from Texas Association of Counties on our 8 existing coverage, and I have a few items, if you'd care to 9 review them, for the renewal. Anybody want to take a look 10 at this? The Auditor furnished that to me. Those are the 11 original app -- original application documents that would be 12 required. That is on everything except the health benefits. 13 MR. TOMLINSON: And worker's comp. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: And worker's comp. 15 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, no. Actually, workers 16 comp is in there too. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: That's what I was thinking. 18 MR. TOMLINSON: Just health insurance. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Law enforcement coverage is in 20 here also, isn't it? 21 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes, it is. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, okay. 23 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: So this is 24 liability, property coverage? 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Liability, property, casualty, 8-9-04 75 1 worker's comp, law enforcement liability. 2 MR. TOMLINSON: Right. 3 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: All that comes 4 through TAC? 5 JUDGE TINLEY: We currently have that through 6 TAC. What they have sent us is the renewal application 7 documents to resubmit that. Obviously, on some of these -- 8 for example, the vehicle policies, they got to update their 9 driver's records; they want current information on that. 10 They want current valuations on the buildings and 11 improvements. They want current claims information on law 12 enforcement activities. It's standard rating information 13 that they require. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's the request? I 15 mean, to go out to other companies in addition to TAC? Is 16 that the -- the thought, where we are? Or do we just want 17 to -- 18 MR. TOMLINSON: I just -- I received the 19 request from TAC for the renewal, and I didn't want to go 20 through the process of filling all that out if -- if the 21 Court wanted to go for proposals for a new carrier. 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Or possible new carrier. 24 MR. TOMLINSON: Possible. 25 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Those of you that -- 8-9-04 76 1 that's been around a lot longer than I have have considered 2 these issues before, and I presume we've determined that TAC 3 is the most effective way to go? 4 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, the -- my experience 5 with -- with TAC is -- on this coverage is that the coverage 6 is designed by county officials for county government, so 7 the likelihood of -- of having gaps in your coverage, if 8 you're totally covered by one carrier, is not as great as if 9 you went with another carrier. That's -- that's the risk I 10 see. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The other thing, in the 12 past eight years or so, probably less than that, we have 13 gone to trying to get them all together. They weren't all 14 together at one point. They were at different times of the 15 year, they were expiring. We've got them all so they're the 16 same term. And the gap is a big issue; make sure that we 17 don't -- especially with law enforcement, make sure that 18 we're covered on, you know, the law enforcement liability 19 and elected officials' liability. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: If I'm not mistaken, until 21 last year, the law enforcement liability was outside of -- 22 MR. TOMLINSON: It was. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: -- the TAC package, but it was 24 brought into the package last year with the other coverages 25 that -- all the other coverages that we've got, with the 8-9-04 77 1 exception of the health benefits. 2 MR. TOMLINSON: And on the monetary side of 3 it, since we -- we have five coverages other than -- than 4 worker's comp at the present, so they give us a 2 percent 5 discount off of our worker's comp for every coverage that we 6 have. So, we -- we -- we're getting a 10 percent discount 7 on our total package from the get-go. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, the -- 9 MR. TOMLINSON: And my -- from -- in the past 10 14 years, since I've been involved in this, I have never had 11 a source from any -- from the private sector beat their 12 price. Never. Never happened. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Tommy, when was the last 14 time we went out for proposals on -- 15 MR. TOMLINSON: We tried last year. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Last year? 17 MR. TOMLINSON: Yeah. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And is this -- are we 19 going out for health insurance again this year, I presume? 20 JUDGE TINLEY: Well, I would suspect we will. 21 We don't have much other alternative. We're going to have 22 to put that one out. 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, I mean, I think 24 it's -- if health insurance is going out, I think doing two 25 insurance packages is more than we need to try to tackle at 8-9-04 78 1 one time. 2 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: That's my sense of 3 it. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: When you were talking, 5 I heard you read from there something about values of 6 buildings or -- how was it -- what was the term? 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Improvements? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, and that kind of 9 thing. That's not a great big issue, rounding up that type 10 of information, is it? 11 MR. TOMLINSON: No. I had -- about three 12 years ago, I had the Appraisal District do an appraisal on 13 all of our property, and since that time, I -- I've used 14 inflation to add to those values, and so we're -- we're 15 current right now on values. I mean, as far as the 16 appraised value that they gave us, plus the -- the inflation 17 since that time. So I, you know, think it's time that -- 18 maybe that we get another appraisal from the Appraisal 19 District. And they will do it. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Tommy, are our 21 appraisals market or replacement value? 22 MR. TOMLINSON: They're -- well, supposedly 23 they're -- that's the same, or close to the same. But we 24 have replacement coverage, is what we have. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 8-9-04 79 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I'll make a motion that 2 we authorize the Auditor to proceed with the renewal of 3 coverage with TAC for everything except health insurance. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded. Any 6 further question or discussion? 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: One question. Since we 8 went to TAC last year, the -- I know on automobile, the 9 coverage changed from about a $250 deductible to a $1,000 10 deductible. Did we actually save money by going to that? 11 I'm just concerned, 'cause it really affected my vehicle 12 maintenance. I know we -- you know, we're out of that in 13 our budget line. I just wonder, was the coverage -- was 14 there an actual savings, or would it be better to look back 15 at another insurance coverage? 16 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, no, that wasn't the 17 reason that we went to that deductible. We were already 18 with TAC, and made the decision to change -- 19 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: To change the deductible 20 amount? Okay. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think your point is, we 22 need to look at whether we came out ahead. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Whether we came out 24 ahead or not. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Especially with your 8-9-04 80 1 driving record. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: I think the Auditor -- yeah. 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's deer. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: If you're looking at deer on 5 the -- on the roadway, and look at them in the pasture, that 6 would probably be better. 7 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: It's not -- 8 JUDGE TINLEY: I think the Auditor can -- as 9 part of the application process, he can quote on $250, $500, 10 or $1,000. Doesn't make any difference. And he can then 11 weigh -- when he brings the actual quotes back to us, weigh 12 whether or not it's better to go with the higher deductible 13 or the lower deductible based upon the other -- 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That would be my only 15 question. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: -- historical -- 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: We're raising our 18 vehicle maintenance line item, but if it's still coming out, 19 all-in-all, that the County's coming out cheaper by it, 20 that's fine. But I know that's a big increase in deductible 21 that I was concerned about. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or 23 discussion on the motion? All in favor of the motion, 24 signify by raising your right hand. 25 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 8-9-04 81 1 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 2 (No response.) 3 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you, Tommy. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: We have a timed item we need 6 to go back and pick up, at 10:45. Number 11, for an update 7 on the Kerr County First Responder program. 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Sir, I'd like to 9 introduce Eric Maloney. He's fairly new to this position. 10 Don't -- Eric, are you still interim, or are you the head 11 guy? 12 MR. MALONEY: Currently, it is still kind of 13 interim-slash-acting position, but it's about to go 14 permanent, so it should be -- 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And you would be that 16 person? 17 MR. MALONEY: I'm sure it'll be soon. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good. 19 Congratulations. 20 MR. MALONEY: I'll meet back with the chief, 21 I guess, next week. We're going to sit down, kind of do a 22 performance review and kind of see where we stand. 23 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: What's your 24 background, Eric? 25 MR. MALONEY: Well, I guess I was brought in 8-9-04 82 1 here today, I guess, to kind of introduce myself, give a 2 little background of myself, and also I'm in charge of the 3 First Responder program, and on the request of Commissioner 4 Baldwin, actually kind of speak to y'all and give you -- 5 kind of catch y'all up to speed on what the program's been 6 doing and what some of the changes actually are going to be 7 implemented to the program itself. A little introduction. 8 Myself, I'm 34 years old, local guy here in Kerrville. 9 Graduated from Tivy in 1987, with Ms. Lavender. I know a 10 few people in town. I'm married. Been married for 11 11 years, and we do -- actually are expecting our first on the 12 way. My educational background, I have an Associate's 13 degree in EMS, and I'm working on completing my Bachelor's 14 degree in emergency health systems, and so I'm working on 15 that currently. Been with the fire department for about 16 seven-plus years as a firefighter and paramedic. Worked 17 with Keith Stevens out at 3 for quite a while, which I think 18 he's familiar with you, Commissioner Baldwin. And, so, I've 19 done that for quite a while. 20 But I've also -- more importantly, as far as 21 the program goes, I've worked with the First Responders on a 22 regular basis. Being out there in the field as a paramedic, 23 I've worked with them. I'm more familiar with probably that 24 side of town as opposed the to Ingram and Hunt, but I know 25 some of their needs. I know some of the changes that need 8-9-04 83 1 to happen in the program to kind of make some -- make some 2 improvements to it, kind of overall. Just kind of a 3 little -- some changes, some minor changes for here and 4 there. So, I know I'm -- I'm in a good rapport with most of 5 them. I think, actually, we're getting some pretty good 6 turnout from the Responders itself. Little update on the -- 7 on the Kerr County First Responder program. Currently, now, 8 we have 27 total First Responders for the entire county. 9 Fifty -- 15 of them are actually county citizens, and we 10 have 12 which are Kerrville firefighters, which, during 11 their off-duty, will respond out in the county. Kind of 12 comparing city versus the county calls right now, saying 13 emergency/non-emergency, we're doing approximately somewhere 14 around 40 to 44 percent in the county, so we're doing quite 15 a bit in the county. It's been getting busier and busier 16 over the years. Are y'all familiar with the zones? Just 17 how we kind of broke it down? 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No. Tell us about it. 19 MR. MALONEY: In Kerr County, how we broke it 20 down with Responders, instead of just having a group of 21 Responders for the entire county and everyone just kind of 22 responding all the way across town everywhere, we decided to 23 break it into actual zones. So, the entire county itself is 24 broken into five different zones. Zone 1 covers Kerrville 25 South area and 16. Zone 2 is Center Point and kind of 173 8-9-04 84 1 out to Camp Verde. Zone 3 itself is kind of IH-10 and 2 everything north, which would run Harper Road, 16 North, all 3 the way over to, I guess, the Kendall County line, in that 4 area. Zone 4 is the Ingram area, and Zone 5 is the Hunt 5 area. Obviously, you can see we are doing very well in 6 Kerrville and Center Point, Ingram, and Hunt. We have six 7 First Responders in Center Point, five in Ingram, and we 8 have 10 in the Hunt area. The Hunt area is quite large, as 9 I'm sure most of y'all are familiar. It runs all the way 10 out to the Y.O. Ranch and even on the other side of the 11 ranch itself, which can encompass quite a bit of territory 12 there. So -- but those ones, they're pretty easy, because 13 you have your fire departments. So, we got Center Point 14 Fire Department, Ingram, and so forth. 15 Kerrville South and Zone 3 are a little 16 tougher; we don't have the fire departments out there, so we 17 have -- Zone 1 itself being Kerrville South, we only have 18 two First Responders. One's an actual firefighter, and the 19 other one is a citizen. Zone 3, IH-10 and north, we only 20 have four, and three of them are firefighters, so we only 21 actually have one that isn't a -- excuse me, isn't a 22 firefighter in Zone 3. So, these are the two areas which 23 actually probably need more work than the other -- than the 24 other zones, as far as future. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Eric, are you -- do you 8-9-04 85 1 include the First Responders kind of based out of Comfort 2 Fire Department out there in your group? Or -- 3 MR. MALONEY: No, sir, I do not. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 'Cause they respond quite 5 a bit. 6 MR. MALONEY: They assist us quite a bit on 7 the county line. And that's kind of like a partial mutual 8 aid agreement. 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Right. 10 MR. MALONEY: But they -- they've always been 11 great as far as -- the Comfort Fire Department's been 12 awesome, because they -- the county line has been -- there's 13 been a pretty big line drawn in the sand as far as there, 14 and Kendall County doesn't necessarily assist us too much 15 there. But they've been great. Comfort's been great. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Eric, how do you 17 define Kerrville South? 18 MR. MALONEY: Kerrville South is pretty much 19 16 South and everything south of that, all Kerrville South, 20 Ranchero Road, everything -- Sheppard Rees would be Zone 3. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What about the east 22 side of Highway 16 going all the way and all that area? 23 Lower Turtle Creek, Fall Creek, Lower Turtle Creek Estates, 24 all through there? West Creek? 25 MR. MALONEY: That's going to be Zone 1, 8-9-04 86 1 which is -- Lower Turtle Creek Fire Department assists us 2 with that, and that's why -- the chief has been great down 3 there, Tim Ahrens. I'm sure he -- he's actually been very 4 beneficial to the program itself. So, you can see some of 5 the changes that we actually need in the future to kind of 6 increase these two zones so we get some good coverage out 7 there for the citizens of the county for sure. Equipment 8 wise, currently we have 13 AED's out there in the county. 9 We have 20 radios, and we have three bags that currently 10 need replacing. So, obviously, with the numbers the same, 11 which we have 27 total First Responders, we're not quite up 12 to speed as far as some of the radios. And, also, I do need 13 to replace some of the bags, and that's what I'll discuss a 14 little bit in the budget as far as what I'm requesting for 15 this year -- fiscal year. So, any questions, I guess, on 16 the zones, on how they're kind of broken down? 17 Overall changes. Some of the changes we did 18 and some of the concerns I heard from the First Responders 19 were the C.E. As an E.M.T. basic, everyone is required to 20 have the -- required to have 72 hours of C.E., continuing 21 education, every four years. There wasn't a current 22 program, other than they were allowed to sit in with 23 Kerrville Fire Department's C.E. But, obviously, with this 24 being during the week and during work hours, it is pretty 25 difficult for everyone to always make it over there. So, 8-9-04 87 1 what I've started implementing is that we have C.E. once a 2 month. The fourth Monday of every month, we get together at 3 7 o'clock at night, and we rotate from our Station 3, the 4 fire department over on this side of town, to the Ingram 5 Fire Department; we use their new facility, which is really 6 nice. And so we're kind of locating for the First 7 Responders, which really helps them out, you know, so 8 everyone gets an opportunity to make them. That'll give us 9 a total of 22 hours a year of C.E., totaling 88 hours every 10 four years. They're -- they only need 72, so it's going to 11 give them more than enough. So, the opportunity there is 12 now -- or we're presenting them with the opportunity to make 13 these C.E.'s and get the proper hours that they do require, 14 as far as the State. 15 I guess, other than that, I guess other 16 increases I want to do, currently we have an E.M.T. basic 17 class -- I think we put on one before through the County, 18 and the ex-E.M.S. Coordinator, Kyle Young, is putting on one 19 right now, which will be increasing that with one First 20 Responder in Zone 1 as soon as he completes that in about a 21 month or two months, when he finishes. And I anticipate 22 holding another one in February or March, another E.M.T. 23 basic class, and that is when I would like to push a little 24 more for those zones, Zone 1 and Zone 3. I haven't really 25 figured out how I'm going do it yet, but I definitely want 8-9-04 88 1 to push for those two zones to kind of increase our First 2 Responder program, 'cause it's the best opportunity to get 3 people into the program, as opposed to waiting for people to 4 move into the area and so forth. That is where I would -- 5 would like to think -- or see what we could kind of come up 6 with as far as an assistance program or some sort of 7 reimbursement program to kind of encourage people to enroll. 8 'Cause we're going to the citizens to enroll in a four-month 9 program to get their basic so, actually, they can respond 10 for the county itself. Not everyone necessarily wants to be 11 an E.M.T. basic for some sort of job-related -- or change 12 jobs. So, actually, we're looking to get them education and 13 the training so they can first respond for Kerr County. So, 14 that is something that, next February-March -- 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What kind of 16 assistance are you talking about? Paying part of their -- 17 MR. MALONEY: I think something like that. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- school effort? Or 19 are we talking about mileage again -- paying mileage again, 20 or what are we talking about? 21 MR. MALONEY: No, sir, I think the school 22 effort itself would be enough encouragement. Maybe, I don't 23 know, reimburse half after completion, maybe after a year's 24 service as a First Responder, something along those lines. 25 I haven't sat down and put any numbers to it as far as what 8-9-04 89 1 would be best. I don't believe that paying for the entire 2 class is in the best interest. That -- they do need to take 3 their own effort and their own steps forward to also -- 4 'cause we're also giving them some education there. But I 5 believe the class currently -- I believe Kyle is charging 6 $750 for the enrollment. I believe that is the enrollment 7 fee. So -- but, as I said, I haven't sat down and really 8 put any numbers to it. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Now? The school that 10 Kyle's doing right now? 11 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: $750 for me to go take 13 that course, and how long does it last? 14 MR. MALONEY: Approximately four months. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And how much does that 16 cover, as far as the actual credits? Will it certify a 17 person? 18 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir, totally certifies 19 E.M.T. basic through the Texas Department of Health when you 20 complete it. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 750. 22 MR. MALONEY: So that's the -- I believe that 23 was what he was charging for this last class. So -- and 24 then there's also -- maybe we can use the Ingram Fire 25 Department, was brought up. I work pretty well with them 8-9-04 90 1 and I know a lot of guys out there, so maybe using that as a 2 classroom. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's a pretty 4 interesting deal. The guy leaves a salaried job here, moves 5 somewhere else, and comes back and charges 750 bucks to 6 teach a class. 7 MR. MALONEY: And the next class is going to 8 have to be through him. On the next class, it's going to 9 have to be through Kyle Young as a coordinator. I'm going 10 to get my coordinator's license. I have -- actually have to 11 teach, through another coordinator, the initial class till 12 I'm actually certified through the state, so we're going to 13 go through him one more time. That's the big change on the 14 E.M.T. and, I guess, C.E. The biggest -- the biggest 15 concern, when I sat down with them initially, I wanted them 16 to write down what the -- what changes they would want to 17 see. C.E. came across everyone's note when -- when they 18 turned them back in, so C.E. is what I changed, and it's 19 going pretty good. I got a lot of assistance; not just 20 myself teach, but a lot of other instructors, also First 21 Responders who are willing to help out with this. Seems to 22 be pretty good. We sit down; we do some roundtable, kind of 23 go out, work through some of the problems, make some 24 changes. And, as I said, Tim Ahrens has been very 25 beneficial. He really wanted to help out with this, which 8-9-04 91 1 has been great. It's been great for me, and so these are 2 some of the changes there. Budget for next year, I'm 3 currently requesting -- I don't know if y'all had a -- if I 4 may? (Handed papers out.) 5 COMMISSIONER LETZ: While we're handing these 6 out, Eric, you mentioned the line in the sand between us and 7 Kendall County. We -- just so you're on notice, we're going 8 to try to remove that line hopefully this year. It is -- 9 it's a problem, and we're hoping some change is going to 10 happen in Kendall County, which should take place. So, 11 we're going to have to work with the personnel they have 12 down there, but I'll be getting with you. 13 MR. MALONEY: That would be great. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Try to see if we can work 15 things out a little bit better. 16 MR. MALONEY: That would be great. Because 17 we're, I mean, sitting right on the county line, and it's a 18 long response from Station 3 for these citizens. I mean, I 19 understand they're in Kerrville, but they're confused, 20 because they have Comfort addresses, Comfort phone numbers. 21 They donate to the volunteers, so -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: A lot of times, they call 23 the fire department; it gets routed to Boerne. They don't 24 get a good response. 25 MR. MALONEY: Fire has been great, though. 8-9-04 92 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Fire Department doesn't 2 have a problem. 3 MR. MALONEY: Those guys are super. This 4 next year's requested, I guess what I requested for the 5 fiscal year is some of the gear bags. We have some old gear 6 bags out there, and this would basically -- some of the 7 equipment itself would be strictly for the current First 8 Responders. So, I do have three gear bags which are kind of 9 torn; they have some holes in them. They do need replacing 10 out there. The CPR class, everyone is required, as an 11 E.M.T. basic, to keep their CPR underneath the direction of 12 Dr. Nau, and that is the one requirement that they're 13 supposed to have. So, what I would like to request is that 14 we do the CPR class yearly in December. It's the same as 15 a -- same program as I'm about to put on at Kerrville Fire 16 Department, kind of keep them up-to-date with the CPR 17 changes every year. The portable radios, we do -- 18 currently, we could use about seven radios to get everyone 19 up to speed on radios as far as First Responders. I'm only 20 requesting five, because I believe there will be some 21 additional money left over in this year's budget that I will 22 be able to purchase the other two from. 23 Basic equipment replacement, that is just 24 damage -- damaged equipment. I have the same thing for the 25 Kerrville Fire Department budget, so just damaged equipment, 8-9-04 93 1 damaged bags; just kind of depends. Oxygen refills. Those 2 are the O-2 tanks that the First Responders keep in their 3 bags and they use for the -- for the patients when they do 4 actually make scene. I estimated it at 50. As I discussed 5 with Commissioner Baldwin, the -- all the refills have been 6 coming out of the Kerrville Fire Department budget in the 7 past. They never differentiated between the two, so it 8 wasn't until I actually got into place that this actually 9 will be coming out of the Kerr County budget. But I -- so 10 it is just an estimation from there. And the Philips Heart 11 Start AED's, those are the AED's we currently have out 12 there. I am requesting six AED pads. They are $30 for each 13 pad, and that should be sufficient. I mean, it's so tough 14 to say. They could do -- they could use six in a week, and 15 then again, they may only use six in a year. So, just an 16 estimation there, and that's where I hope the replacement -- 17 the extra money will assist. And that's kind of the 18 requested budget for the next fiscal year. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: For the members of the Court's 20 benefit, I had this information available to me when I was 21 working on the budget. I -- I don't know whether 22 Mr. Maloney had furnished it, or whether -- 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: He turned it in to me, 24 and I turned it in to you. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. I wasn't sure how I got 8-9-04 94 1 it, but I knew I got it, 'cause that's the same thing that I 2 was looking at. 3 MR. MALONEY: I've been working with -- 4 directly with Commissioner Baldwin, I guess, trying to keep 5 him up to -- up-to-date. The other changes -- or the things 6 for the year, there needs to be some more AED's, obviously. 7 They are crucial as far as patient life safety is concerned, 8 especially in the far reaches of the county out in Zone 5, 9 out in the Y O., and we put as many out there as we can 10 possibly get grants for. But, you know, sometimes they 11 respond; sometimes the gentleman who actually has the AED is 12 unable to respond. So, O.R.C.A. is having another grant 13 assistance program this year, and I would like to put in for 14 that grant for Kerr County to see if we can get a few more 15 AED's out there in the county. And, obviously, we have a 16 good list of what zones have what, and would spread them out 17 accordingly so we get the best coverage we can in the 18 county. And that is all I have for the Court today. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Very good. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: As a secondary source on those 21 defibrillators -- of course, if we can get them through 22 O.R.C.A., that would be wonderful, but L.C.R.A. has made 23 some of those available in the past. They've provided 24 them -- you know, they furnished one to Schreiner 25 University, for example, and -- and they -- they've done 8-9-04 95 1 some other -- in cooperation with KPUB, I believe. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's correct. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: So, as a secondary source, 4 that might be something you want to look at just for 5 information. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There might be some 7 Homeland Security money available for that, too. Have to 8 look at it. Might be. I don't know. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: Is it on the list, Sheriff? 10 Or do you recall? 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes, you can through 12 some of that Homeland Security. You know, actually, for the 13 fire department, it would be through the City of Kerrville's 14 Homeland Security grant money, and I think this year it 15 ended up on a radio system, I guess, and all that. But next 16 year we just have to see how much is available. If we get 17 some next year, we can say it's for First Responders out in 18 the county, then there's a possibility that we could add 19 that like we did the equipment for all the fire departments 20 that they just got issued the other day. 21 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Eric, I've got some 22 comments I'd like to share with you. They won't require any 23 response. It's probably just reinforcing some of the issues 24 and concerns that you're already dealing with. First, about 25 the quality and professionalism of the First Responders, I'm 8-9-04 96 1 very pleased with what I see there. Besides hearing reports 2 from others, I've happened to be on the scene several times 3 where First Responders responded first, and they were very 4 capable and professional and did a very valuable service. 5 I've got some concerns, and they're my concerns, but they're 6 also concerns of my constituents that I've heard and dealt 7 with for some time; I just want to share those with you. On 8 training and certification, I've got a concern that -- that 9 the process for getting certified once the training is 10 complete is too lengthy and too bureaucratic, and that we 11 could do a better job of getting people into service once 12 they've got their training. On dispatch and response time 13 in the far-west regions of the county, dispatch is not 14 always satisfactory, and I believe the response times are 15 longer than they have to be. And, whatever the case is, 16 that's something we need to take a close look at. 17 Also having to do with the far-west part of 18 the county, I'm told that the -- that the radios are not 19 adequate; that there are black holes, there are spots where 20 perhaps the First Responder and sometimes fire department 21 personnel can get messages, but they can't transmit messages 22 back. There's, I think, a proposal afloat to avail 23 ourselves of some grant money and purchase an additional 24 repeater that might solve that problem or have something to 25 do with it. We need to look into that. The last thing is, 8-9-04 97 1 the contract we have for EMS is a really old contract, and 2 it provides -- this is not something you can deal with, I 3 don't think, but it provides for an advisory board. And it 4 also provides for providing written annual reports 5 evaluating response time, performance, and training and 6 certification programs, and I think that board is not 7 functioning. So, we probably either need to modify the 8 contract to change that, or to improve the functioning 9 capability of that advisory board. That's all I have. 10 Thank you for being here. 11 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Commissioner, can I 13 touch on -- what was -- the first one was the certification, 14 stumbling around the certification. Now, would that -- this 15 is not fair to ask you, because you haven't been through it 16 yet, but that -- I mean, you -- you teach the students. You 17 give them a certain amount of hours, and then it goes to the 18 State of Texas, does it not? 19 MR. MALONEY: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. 20 Currently, I -- I do know probably the concerns that came 21 out of there, but they changed over from T.D.H. being 22 responsible for the certification to actually a national 23 registry program. T.D.H. was pretty quick and timely, which 24 is a surprise, but they were, as far as getting things back 25 within about a week or two weeks, you would know. Now, the 8-9-04 98 1 national registry is sometimes up to six weeks, and that is 2 just going to be something that, you know, I guess from here 3 on out, basics, you know, and paramedics are going to have 4 to work with. And T.D.H. itself is -- is actually 5 downsizing more. 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. 7 MR. MALONEY: So we're going to have more and 8 more difficulties from there. But, yeah, that's a -- 9 national registry, hopefully they'll work out some more 10 kinks. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are you thinking that 12 our local people -- this guy has fell down on the job of 13 maybe submitting it to the state? I mean, that's something 14 that we can correct. 15 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: That's a 16 possibility, and Eric can handle that. We can take a look 17 at it. If we're doing the best we can, then that's good 18 enough. If we're not, he can take steps to make sure we get 19 the paperwork in on time. 20 MR. MALONEY: Yeah, I'll make sure anything 21 that comes across my desk is submitted in a timely manner, 22 by all means. By all means. 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Thank you very much. 24 Appreciate it. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Thank you. 8-9-04 99 1 JUDGE TINLEY: We appreciate it. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Get out there and get 3 to work. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I tell you, just every 6 time you turn on the TV now, you hear those words, "first 7 responder." And I don't care what they're talking about. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: They're fantastic. 9 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: They're important 10 people. They may save our lives. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah, I like them. I 12 like them a lot. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: The next item on the agenda is 14 to consider and discuss approval of the telecommunications 15 equipment lease for Kerr County Extension Office. This is a 16 matter that's been lingering. I think Mr. Motley had some 17 issues with the contract that he's been working on. Have 18 you gotten those resolved? Is there something we can take 19 action on? 20 MR. MOTLEY: No, I've not. I have kind of 21 got a memo, oh, probably better than half-drafted. What I 22 thought I ought to do before I come over here and get it 23 finalized in court is to work through any issues I have with 24 the provider of the service, and I don't think it's going to 25 be a problem. I talked to this gentleman before, and I 8-9-04 100 1 talked to his predecessor. I think we had about had them 2 worked out, but I just have not -- it's the same contract 3 that Road and Bridge had entered into, and we've talked 4 about that, so I don't know there's going to be much of a 5 problem getting it worked out. Probably ought to be able to 6 do it pretty quick. We're not ready today. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: The bad news is, we've got 8 these unresolved issues. The good news is, we're paying at 9 the new reduced, lower rate, so that -- nothing that we're 10 going to be jeopardized by if we pass at this time. So, 11 let's move on to the next item, if no one else has anything 12 further on it. Next item, discuss Kerr County Crime Victim 13 Assistance Coordinator. Commissioner Baldwin? 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. This -- 15 this issue has kind of been bouncing around in the community 16 recently, and the Judge and I sat down and took a peek at it 17 the other day, and determined that -- or at least, the way I 18 see it, is that the law requires us to have -- will you pass 19 these down, please? The law requires us to have a Crime 20 Victim Assistance Coordinator in this county. And I 21 understand there's several ways that you can put it together 22 for county only, maybe one of the districts or both 23 districts, et cetera, but wanted to -- I asked Mr. Motley if 24 he'd be available today to make a comment, and he's written 25 me an e-mail back that I haven't read, but I think he says 8-9-04 101 1 yes or something. But, wanted to have a talk about it. And 2 I understand, David, y'all -- like, your office, you have a 3 person in your office, and I understand maybe the -- the 4 D.A.'s office is the same. They have a person in their 5 office that is just kind of a -- one of your regular 6 employees, that -- that do this kind of work, as just -- as 7 a -- I don't know. Is it -- 8 MR. MOTLEY: Well, it's additional duties in 9 our office. We do have a person who does this. They -- 10 they do take special training for this. The D.A.'s office, 11 at least the 216th D.A., does have somebody that I'm aware 12 of who does this work. I -- I'm not saying the 198th 13 doesn't; just I'm not familiar with who that person is in 14 the 198th. I don't know. But, in any event, it is required 15 by the Code of Criminal Procedure. This is what's been 16 commonly called a Victim's Bill of Rights, and there's 17 certain rights that a person who is a victim of a serious 18 offense be allowed to be kept informed of certain things and 19 certain aspects of the -- of the preparation, filing, and 20 progress of their case, and even be informed, furthermore, 21 you know, after the case is over with of, say, the 22 defendant's movements and where he's going to be. You know, 23 some sort of an assaultive offense. You know, the victim 24 would need to be informed when this guy's moved back to the 25 jurisdiction or something like that. These are rights that 8-9-04 102 1 are, you know, conferred or given to the victims of crime by 2 the state legislature. And each section -- each office in a 3 jurisdiction that prosecutes criminal matters is required to 4 have a Crime Victims Coordinator, and we have one. 5 Now, I will say this. In our situation, we 6 send out letters. Often we're dealing with less serious 7 offenses, so we wouldn't necessarily have the response that 8 you would have maybe in a more serious assault of -- you 9 know, even murders, things like that, sexual assaults, 10 different kind of cases. They may engender more response 11 than what we've seen in our office. But we send out letters 12 informing people that they have certain rights, and they 13 oftentimes don't really follow up with us. And, so, I think 14 the idea of having one -- one officer or one person do this 15 for the whole county might allow more time for follow-up. 16 We're -- you know, the lady in our office who does it is the 17 administrative legal secretary who's got full-time 18 responsibility on protective orders and juvenile cases and 19 kind of keeping the office running, and we send a letter, 20 and if we don't get anything back, it's kind of -- you know, 21 she has other things to do rather than to keep following up 22 on it. 23 But a person whose job it is -- and this is 24 done, really -- I think Kendall County pretty much started 25 this -- you know, the model what we're looking at. But all 8-9-04 103 1 the counties around here pretty much have something like 2 this going, where one person -- and this is funded through 3 AACOG grant, 80 percent. As I understand it, 80 percent 4 grant. One person kind of sends this stuff out. They're 5 more able to follow up on this and make a more aggressive, 6 proactive type of an effort to tell these people what the 7 rights are and to help them make application to the 8 governor's office -- various branches of the governor's 9 office where funds come from. They're, you know, specific 10 funds available for, you know, counseling and things like 11 that, that people a lot of times need, and they really don't 12 know that they have these. 13 At this point, you know, it's been -- I think 14 Rusty's well aware of the situation. And my understanding 15 is that kind of a -- Mr. Curry, I believe, is out of state, 16 but I believe efforts are being made at this point to -- I'm 17 understanding that both D.A.'s are fully behind this 18 concept. I haven't heard from anybody. I don't know who 19 has, but I think they're behind it. And to have one person 20 to do this, the -- the grant, if I understand this 21 correctly, if it's -- I think the application is in 22 November. If it's awarded, the funding would be in place in 23 order to start their -- I guess you'd say their operations 24 effective July 1. So, right now, kind of what I feel is 25 being done is that myself and the D.A.'s are trying to look 8-9-04 104 1 for funding elsewhere in our budgets. Maybe the forfeiture 2 funds, hot check funds, moneys in budget that have not been 3 spent might could be moved around or something to help fund 4 part of the time before that July 1st money that kicks in on 5 the grant. 6 I understand the grant -- there's plenty of 7 money for the counties in this AACOG and that are covered by 8 AACOG to all have the funds necessary for this unified 9 Victim's Assistance Coordinator, and I -- you know, I think 10 it's a good idea. I can't say that it will be great for our 11 office and it would take a whole lot of duties off Helena, 12 because, you know, she's not really paid any extra for this. 13 But, then again, we -- you know, we send the letters and we 14 don't often get a response back. And, you know, we can say, 15 well, gee, those people -- again, in our office, misdemeanor 16 offense, we kind of think, well, they -- if they wanted 17 assistance, they would say something to us, but sometimes it 18 really takes more of an effort, I think, to get people, you 19 know, up to speed on what -- on what's available for them 20 and what we're required to do. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: David, do you see the 22 law saying that we're required to have this position, 23 whether it's individual offices like y'all's, or we have one 24 county-wide? 25 MR. MOTLEY: Yep. 8-9-04 105 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And the duties -- the 2 way I understand it, the duty is to assist crime victims and 3 families, and see that they're plugged into the right state 4 agencies and all agencies, and see that they get all the 5 help that they can get from all over. 6 MR. MOTLEY: Well -- 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: That's basically it, 8 isn't it? 9 MR. MOTLEY: I think you're -- you're pretty 10 close. This Section 56.02 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 11 sets out some certain rights that are provided or afforded 12 to victims of crime. Not every crime, but specific crimes. 13 And it's basically been -- you know, it's known as the 14 Victim's Bill of Rights. That the purpose of this 15 coordinator is to assure that those people are afforded 16 those rights set out. And it's, you know, page and a half 17 of things, but it's -- it's the right to -- to make a 18 victim's statement at the time of sentencing. You know, you 19 see that in some cases. Victim can stand up and address the 20 Court and say, "Here's, you know, how this crime has 21 affected our family and our life, and we want you to take 22 this into consideration." They have a right to be informed 23 of when hearings are set and what types of hearings, and to 24 make their wishes known to the -- to the District Attorney. 25 I mean, we're seeing a little bit of this out 8-9-04 106 1 in that case in Utah, you know, the family of this 2 supposedly murdered woman is making their wishes known to 3 the D.A.'s at this time, that they're not particularly 4 interested, apparently, in seeking the death penalty in that 5 case. So, the D.A. is talking to them and getting input 6 from them early on in the process. So, it's -- it's -- it 7 just is an effort on the part of prosecution and the State 8 to involve the victims -- you know, keep them informed and 9 involve them in the important decisions involving -- you 10 know, regarding the case, recognizing that their role as a 11 victim in the case is important. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: David, it is envisioned 13 this coordinator is going to keep your office from having to 14 do it yourself, and Bruce's office -- I mean, this is only 15 going to be one person in the county. 16 MR. MOTLEY: Unified approach. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Might free up some of 18 your staff to do some other work; not much, but a little 19 bit. 20 MR. MOTLEY: Our staff -- the way it works in 21 our office is pretty much -- the letter is an automated-type 22 process, and the letter goes out to the person, and it's -- 23 and it complies with the law and everything, tells what 24 we're -- you know, gives you -- informs you of your rights 25 and what you need to do if you want to do this, that, or the 8-9-04 107 1 other. But we don't get much response back, very little, 2 and I believe, if I'm not mistaken, Bruce has told me the 3 same thing; they don't get much response back from people. 4 And it may be that our letters aren't catching up, or it may 5 be that it really requires somebody to kind of pick up the 6 phone or go to see them and say, look -- you know, a lot of 7 people maybe are used to just being these rugged 8 individualists who just go on and -- really, we have a lot 9 of people who are victims of crime who have been victims of 10 crime before, and they just kind of just go on. And, so, 11 there are some things that can be done to make their lives a 12 little easier and to take their feelings into account on it. 13 But it would free up our -- whatever minimal time we do with 14 it -- it's not a lot in our office -- to keep whatever 15 approved and certified and whatnot. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My question was, this is 17 not in addition to what you're doing? 18 MR. MOTLEY: No. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: This will take the place 20 of what you're doing. 21 MR. MOTLEY: We would not have a person doing 22 it, and we envision there would be one person doing it for 23 all the offices, and perhaps -- perhaps through more 24 aggressive efforts on their part, do a better job at -- at 25 letting the citizens know what -- you know, what their 8-9-04 108 1 rights are and such. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Are you going to bring 3 this back at our next meeting for sure? 4 MR. MOTLEY: Well, I'm not really sure who's 5 coordinating it, to tell you the truth. My understanding 6 was Judge Prohl -- I mean, I think the District Judges are 7 behind it; I think the D.A.'s are behind it. I think 8 it's -- at some point, somebody is kind of talking to 9 everybody, making sure that they're behind the idea of 10 having a unified individual to do this for the whole -- 11 county-wide. And I've not talked to any of the D.A.'s, 12 but -- but I think they're in favor of it. And it's just 13 going to take some -- you know, it makes sense, perhaps, for 14 me to -- for this person to be under my -- whatever -- my 15 budget line item in my office, whatever, and I'd be willing 16 to do the grant application paperwork, whatever it takes to 17 do that and get the -- 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So you'll bring it back 19 to us? 20 MR. MOTLEY: I'd be happy to do it. You said 21 next time, and I'm not sure -- 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No, next -- no, I'm not 23 sure how long it's going to take to get with those other 24 people. I'd like to push it, get it going. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: One thing -- I'm 8-9-04 109 1 sorry, Bill. Just let me run my little deal out and you can 2 have it. One thing that we -- that we see is that -- I 3 mean, we need to establish it in an office somewhere, and my 4 thought was it would be -- it's a likely place in the County 5 Attorney's office. Not geographically, necessarily, because 6 he doesn't have room down there for anybody else, but be in 7 his budget and under his guidance, and to take care of his 8 issues and both district courts' issues in Kerr County. 9 Now, if you get -- I mean, I can see the thing expanding out 10 into those districts, but you're going to have to cut a deal 11 with those other counties to pick up their part of the tab 12 at some point. And I'd like to see it just start the thing 13 off Kerr County only to get it started, and then do whatever 14 you want to later on. But -- and the -- and the funding, 15 somehow we need to get the two -- the two D.A.'s and the 16 County Attorney together and cough up the bread to get the 17 thing going until the grant, and somebody needs to go after 18 the grant; I assume one of the D.A.'s would, or David, and 19 until the grant comes in, they can -- they can cough up some 20 money to fund the thing until that grant comes in. Then it 21 picks up, and then the State -- the grant is -- State pays 22 80 percent, and the Kerr County citizens pay 20 percent of 23 that. Now, I don't know -- 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Well, that leads to a 25 couple questions. 8-9-04 110 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay, good. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The grant money -- 3 the grant money would pay a certain percentage, or 4 80 percent of -- whatever you said -- of the administration 5 of the program, right? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yes, sir. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The coordinator and 8 whatever is necessary to administrate the program. What -- 9 does the State pay the -- does the State pick up the 10 compensation benefits? Are those state funds? Or -- 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: If I can answer some of 12 that, when this started -- 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Let me get the 14 question out, then you can answer all of them at the same 15 time. Does the State pay the compensation benefits? 16 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: And, secondly, how 18 long does it take a crime victim to get benefits? For 19 example, if -- if a crime victim lost a spouse in a robbery, 20 somebody was killed, and they needed assistance funding 21 burial expenses, how long would that person have to wait to 22 get those compensation benefits so that they could get on 23 with their life and take care of the problems that they -- 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Let me answer that this 25 way. And, starting out, every agency has to have a victim's 8-9-04 111 1 coordinator. We have one in our office, and that's why this 2 common one for the entire county, one person doing it 3 full-time, would save the Sheriff's Office, the police 4 department, both D.A.'s, the County Attorney, everybody. 5 Okay? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We don't include the 7 city? 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes, we will be helping 9 the city, 'cause they have one too. The new chief and I had 10 mentioned that in a meeting we had here about it, and we put 11 it as a priority in our AACOG community planning. The -- 12 the reimbursement part, that's the whole reason you have to 13 have a coordinator. Our coordinator, such as -- I think 14 y'all can remember, about two weeks ago we had a stabbing in 15 the county where a man got stabbed. In that, our Sheriff's 16 Office Crime Victim Coordinator immediately started working 17 with the victim of that, getting all the forms filled out. 18 Linda Drake's my victims coordinator. Last week, about 19 Wednesday -- and you're only talking about a week and a half 20 after the -- after the stabbing itself, and the guy had to 21 go through some surgery last week. About Wednesday, it was, 22 I got notification from Austin requesting a copy of the 23 offense report, okay? So, they'd already gotten it. It had 24 been mailed in. 25 A lot of it's up to the victim themselves. 8-9-04 112 1 They have to mail this in. Then Austin requires copies of 2 the offense report and any follow-up type stuff on that, and 3 then you can get it back. They get reimbursed that way. 4 They are not the only ones that get reimbursed, such as we 5 pay for all the -- the sexual assault examination kits and 6 everything at the hospital. If we take a -- a sexual 7 assault victim to the hospital, we're the one that gets that 8 bill; Sheriff's Office is. If the police department takes 9 them to the hospital, the police department gets that bill. 10 Ingram's the same way. We get reimbursed through that Crime 11 Victim Compensation for that deal also, okay? And that -- 12 sometimes, depending on how quick the hospital gets us the 13 bill and that, it can take about three months, four months 14 to get that reimbursement. And I know there is a time some 15 states are running low on those funds, on the Crime Victim 16 Compensation funds, so it just depends. 17 One of the biggest advantages of having a 18 county-wide Crime Victim's Coordinator would be the -- the 19 capital murder we had in Comfort, okay? With that, we used 20 Kendall County's Crime Victim Coordinator, 'cause they have 21 a county-wide one, which that person gets to know all the 22 victims of that crime. May not just be a spouse. It may be 23 also a son, other relatives, a whole group of people, and 24 they get to -- instead of just helping them fill out the 25 forms, it also gives that person one contact -- that victim 8-9-04 113 1 or that whole family of victims one contact, one person they 2 can get to know personally, that can explain to them the 3 entire court system. What can they expect here? They can 4 go to court. We have a lot of little agencies, Hill Country 5 Crisis Council, you know, all those that are fabulous with 6 helping people and getting through it, but this gives them 7 one contact all the way through from getting the forms 8 filled out to the victim impact statement that they can make 9 or have put in with the guy's opinion pack, we call it, for 10 when he goes to T.D.C., or just all the reimbursement and 11 just somebody to talk to to help them set up counseling for 12 it and all that. 13 It's been something that's been needed in 14 this county for years and years, 'cause right now the 198th 15 has a coordinator, 216th has a coordinator, David has a 16 coordinator, I have a coordinator, P.D. has a coordinator, 17 so we meet all the law. There's no problem in that. It's 18 just, you know, they'll deal with David on some things, 19 they'll deal with us on other things, and it's real 20 confusing and a very hard time for the victims to begin 21 with, and that needs to be coordinated. Now, CJAC -- AACOG 22 does do the grant; that's how Comfort has theirs. And a lot 23 of the grant reimbursement, they -- on the 80 percent is 24 in-kind, where if the County provided them with an office 25 and furnishings and all that kind of -- that's an in-kind 8-9-04 114 1 donation part to that grant, where the actual moneys 2 wouldn't cost. But a lot of it is those grants are -- are 3 scored. True, there's money there, and should be. But when 4 you sit on that committee scoring the grants, you don't know 5 whether you're actually going to get that grant or not. 6 There's no for-sure thing that that grant's a done deal when 7 you apply for it. You hope it is. You know, Comfort's is. 8 Kendall County's has been funded for years through the 9 grant; every year it's been re-upped and redone. But we 10 hope that gets -- 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, somebody needs 12 to come up with a budget, actual set of figures, and 13 somebody needs to approach the D.A.'s and tell them to cough 14 up some bread and let's get this thing rocking and rolling. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: I think -- I think the initial 16 question or concern that we had, Commissioner, was to 17 hopefully get a consensus that, as you and I felt like, for 18 the entirety of Kerr County, this needs to be operated under 19 the auspices of the County Attorney's office for 20 misdemeanors and felonies, and I think we've reached that 21 consensus. I don't know of anybody that's disagreed. I've 22 not heard directly from either one of the District 23 Attorneys, but -- 24 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I've talked to -- 25 JUDGE TINLEY: -- people -- knowing people in 8-9-04 115 1 departments that are currently designated, I'm sure they'd 2 be very happy to give that up. I -- at least I know one of 3 them would in the 216th. So -- 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What about -- 5 JUDGE TINLEY: -- I think, at this point, 6 it's a matter of trying to put together a proposed budget, 7 as you say, a grocery list of what we're going to need and 8 how it's going to get funded, and -- and then try and move 9 it forward from there. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are you including -- 11 will you include juveniles? Or will someone -- 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Yes. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- include juveniles? 14 JUDGE TINLEY: That was another issue that I 15 mentioned to you that -- and that's -- that subject came up 16 not too long ago in the Juvenile Board meeting about the 17 Crime Victim's Assistance. And -- and this -- this would 18 work also if it were in the County Attorney's office here. 19 That would be a good fit. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Good fit. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: That's one more reason to have 22 it in the County Attorney's office. 23 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Buster, I will tell you 24 that that started over a year ago, and I met with both 25 D.A.'s, all law enforcement people, Hill Country Crisis 8-9-04 116 1 Council, CASA, all the different people. Everybody is in 2 total agreement, this county needs it and needs it badly. 3 We were unable to get the grant requirements and a grant 4 prepared in time last year because we were too close to the 5 deadline before it got started to be able to get a grant 6 submitted to AACOG for it. But it's -- it's more of a deal 7 that -- David was approached to see if he would house them; 8 I didn't have space or really ability to put them out there, 9 and I don't think the City -- and it seems to work real well 10 for Kendall County that they're housed out of the County 11 Attorney's office and done that way. So, it is the -- the 12 consensus of everybody that's involved -- that I can think 13 of that is involved in crime victims in any way, shape, or 14 form in this county that this county has definitely grown 15 past the point of needing one person. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Are we going to make 17 the deadline for AACOG this year? 18 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Yes, and that's what 19 we're trying to do. The grant is due in November. Part of 20 the AACOG -- the community planning meeting that was held 21 here last week sets your priorities. The priority for Kerr 22 County in that planning deal, priority number one, which 23 rates your -- your grant priorities, is being set for law 24 enforcement purposes and for victim's services as a Crime 25 Victim's Coordinator and education, and that's being set as 8-9-04 117 1 the number one priority for Kerr County. As soon as that 2 document is done, which is September-something, then that 3 will be approved and goes up to AACOG, and then you can 4 start filling out your grant applications. And part of the 5 grant application will be a complete budget that has to be 6 done. I know last year, I think he was dealing with CASA. 7 Former County Judge Fred Henneke had offered to help with 8 that grant process, just volunteer it, but we were just too 9 late trying to get everything done to get that grant 10 submitted last year. And I think this year, with David's 11 assistance, and even possibly, you know, Mr. Henneke doing 12 some of his other work -- assistance, and the assistance of 13 Kendall County's Attorney and that, that we can get it all 14 done and get it in in time this year. 15 COMMISSIONER LETZ: So, we should look for 16 this to be on our agenda the first meeting in October? 17 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I would imagine 18 somewhere around there. It depends on when AACOG comes out 19 with the actual timelines on -- on the grant portion itself. 20 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But, in the 21 meantime -- in the meantime -- 22 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That's -- 23 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: -- before we get a 24 grant dollar into this county, somebody needs to be paying. 25 We need to get this thing up and running, and somebody needs 8-9-04 118 1 to pay, and I know three offices that are deep pockets. 2 (Laughter.) 3 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: That is the thing, is we 4 really need one. Now, we meet all the guidelines on the law 5 and that, but it would truly be an ideal situation for the 6 victims of the crime if we do go ahead and get a Crime 7 Victim's Coordinator in office now, get the funding to pay 8 that. Plus, then, at the time the grant comes around, they 9 also see you're real serious about getting this done. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Which means it's a 11 budget item which has to be addressed in our forthcoming 12 budget workshops, correct? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Maybe. Maybe. 14 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Maybe. Depends on where 15 we can get the other sourcing for it. I mean, there's a 16 possibility of going through another local foundation for a 17 grant that would last long enough to get it up and running. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Still be a budget item. 19 Whether you go to a foundation or not, you need to have it 20 budgeted. 21 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I've got a question 22 for Mr. Motley. 23 MR. MOTLEY: Yes, sir? 24 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I'm looking at this 25 document you provided, Grant Budget, Kendall County, Texas. 8-9-04 119 1 I'm trying to determine how much this program costs. If I 2 look down on the last numbers on the second page, was the 3 total cost of this program $57,000, and total cost to 4 Kendall County $12,000? 5 MR. MOTLEY: I'm going to say that I believe 6 that's exactly what it is. The -- Kendall County has the -- 7 oh, it's going to be those two -- second and third columns 8 added together are going to be their 20 percent -- actually, 9 they're a little over; they're about 21 percent. 10 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: So, if -- if Kerr 11 County established such a program and we got our grant 12 money, we could anticipate having to spend on the order of 13 $10,000 to $15,000 a year out of our budget? 14 MR. MOTLEY: I would say that's pretty 15 accurate, depending on how -- how -- you know, how our 16 expenses compare with those. 17 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: That's close enough. 18 Thank you. 19 MR. MOTLEY: I think most expenses are going 20 to be personnel-related. I don't think there's a lot in the 21 way of, you know, equipment stuff. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Anything else further 23 on this item? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, I think we've 25 done -- this Court has done their job on this. And -- 8-9-04 120 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Wrung that one out pretty 2 good. 3 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Yeah. We sit back and 4 wait now until somebody brings it back. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Let's move on to Item 6 18, then. Consider, discuss, and take appropriate action on 7 a request from the manager of Kerr County Environmental 8 Health Department to enroll and participate in the 9 forthcoming Leadership Kerr County educational program that 10 begins October 19th of this year, and authorize a hand check 11 in the amount of $300 to be taken from budget Line Item 12 640-485 for that tuition. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I put this on after 14 talking to Mr. Arreola, and he's had some discussions and 15 came to me with the belief that the -- the Leadership Kerr 16 County educational program would be valuable to him. I, 17 frankly, agree that it probably would be, but we think he 18 needs some authorization, because there was some concern 19 that this was not a -- an approved item right now, and might 20 need the Court's approval. So, Miguel, talk to us. 21 MR. ARREOLA: Yes, sir. Well, I agree with 22 you. I believe it's a very positive program. I think we 23 can use also part of that as a public education campaign 24 that we need to do in our department, to involve and just 25 relate a little more with the rest of the leadership group 8-9-04 121 1 in the county as to what we do. And it will be valuable for 2 us to learn what the community needs and how to assist 3 better. So, I think it's very positive, and I'm just 4 requesting approval. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Mr. -- I'm sorry, were you 6 through? 7 MR. ARREOLA: No, I'm through. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Has this happened in the past, 9 where department heads, elected officials, or employees of 10 the County have -- 11 MR. TOMLINSON: I think so. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: -- attended? 13 MR. TOMLINSON: I think it was -- I don't 14 think it was approved, but I'm recollecting that -- I'm not 15 positive, but I think we've discussed this before. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I believe -- I mean, I 17 don't recollect this to be -- a number of County personnel 18 go through it, but I think they paid for it themselves. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I had no recollection 20 as to whether or not we had done it in the last six years or 21 not, but -- 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, looking at -- 23 the other side of it is that the things that we do pay for 24 are to enhance your ability to do your job better, to help 25 the County more. As a -- to me, this is an extracurricular 8-9-04 122 1 activity. And I'm not -- I don't know -- David just left; 2 we should have asked him. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: No, David's here. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm sorry, David. By 5 the way, I want to comment, that was an excellent 6 presentation a while ago. Thank you very much for helping 7 on that thing. 8 MR. MOTLEY: You're welcome. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, thank you again. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You go to Leadership 11 Kerr County, David? 12 MR. MOTLEY: What? 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Have you done 14 Leadership Kerr County? 15 MR. MOTLEY: Oh, yes. Yes. 16 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Did the taxpayers pay 17 for it? 18 MR. MOTLEY: I paid for it. 19 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: In my opinion, that's 20 the way it should be. 21 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think it's a good 22 program. I would certainly encourage Miguel to do it. I 23 think it probably -- I mean, it's an indirect benefit to the 24 County, but it -- I think it would be something we haven't 25 paid for in the past, and I think it's a -- it's a precedent 8-9-04 123 1 that, if we did it, certainly we'd have to do it from now 2 forward. I think it's a little bit of a disservice to those 3 that participated before. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's true. If we 5 haven't done it in the past, we would be setting a 6 precedent. 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And, actually, we need 8 to -- this needs to be dealt with in a policy somehow. I 9 think, you know, what is it that we pay for and what is it 10 we don't pay for? We don't pay for lawyers to go to school 11 and become lawyers. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. I think the 13 County -- 14 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I just thought I'd 15 throw that out as an example. 16 COMMISSIONER LETZ: But I think the time-off 17 standpoint -- I mean, my recollection is that -- I know 18 we've had employees go through it, so any time that was 19 needed out of -- you know, during the day to participate is, 20 I think, encouraged, or is okay with the County policy. 21 It's just the actual paying for the tuition. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: One day a month? Is 23 that what it is? 24 MR. ARREOLA: One day a month. It's about 25 five hours a month, what it is. I -- I don't have those 8-9-04 124 1 records, at any rate, but I heard that in the past, 2 Environmental Health Department Manager was approved. I 3 think it was Mr. Leak, David Leak, but I'm not sure on that. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Before my time. 5 MR. ARREOLA: So, that's based on the past. 6 Also, the classes that they do offer do have environment 7 topics on it, so it's something we can use. The rest is 8 basically all -- all around the county; it's not only 9 environment, but they do have a topic for it. But it's up 10 to the Court. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I hope you attend, but I 12 think you have to pay for it yourself. 13 MR. ARREOLA: Okay. 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That's my feeling on it, 15 just because of the nature of how we've handled it before. 16 But it is an excellent program. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Your recollection is there was 18 a request made to the Court on a previous occasion, and it 19 was not honored? 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I don't recall a request 21 coming to the Court, but I know that other County employees 22 have gone through it and paid for it themselves. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, there have been 24 several. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Do you recall the request 8-9-04 125 1 having been made to the Court previously, Mr. Tomlinson? 2 MR. TOMLINSON: I'm not sure -- absolutely 3 sure about that. I do know that there has been several 4 employees go through the program, and the County's supported 5 it. I mean, we've -- I mean, I've taught classes in it 6 before, and -- but I don't -- I don't ever remember anybody 7 asking for it for sure. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 9 MR. TOMLINSON: I don't think -- I think 10 there's been similar issues before about training that might 11 be extraordinary that the Court has not approved. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It would be an 14 appropriate budget topic if somebody wanted to reference it 15 when we talk about other conferences. 16 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I think Commissioner 17 Baldwin brought up an issue that would probably be worth -- 18 spend a little time thinking about it. And I'm reminded 19 that, a few weeks ago, we incurred some expenses for the 20 County Engineer to attend a mold remediation school, and I 21 wonder how that's relative to improving the County 22 Engineer's performance. I feel pretty sure that I can't go 23 to schools that would qualify me for a different occupation 24 and expect the County to pay for it. 25 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Pretty good point. 8-9-04 126 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. 2 MR. ARREOLA: Just one more comment. If I 3 recall correctly, when we started this position, there was 4 some money in the budget for management training; that it 5 was not going to be paid to me, it was going to be set for 6 management training. And so that's -- that was part of my 7 salary that never got used. Still there. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: That is a point. 9 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yeah. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Because of your -- 11 MR. ARREOLA: So it would qualify as a part 12 of it. But if not, it's okay. 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Here you go, throwing a 14 fly in the ointment, Miguel. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: That's exactly what he's done. 16 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: That is correct. We 17 did -- 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We did say we wanted 19 to do that. 20 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Yeah. We told -- that's 21 exactly the type of thing we envisioned. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Where would the money 23 come from? 24 MR. ARREOLA: It's in that line item. It 25 would stay there. 8-9-04 127 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: You gave me a number. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Conferences. He's got it. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: In Conferences, okay. 4 COMMISSIONER LETZ: And we -- and my 5 recollection is that, because this was your first management 6 experience, we felt that you should go through a course at 7 your choice to help you -- your management skills. 8 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I move approval. 9 Let's see where it goes. 10 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I second. That 11 doesn't set any precedent, except for the next person we say 12 that we're going to take money out of your salary. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: If we tell them at 14 the interview, "You got to go through management training." 15 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: I don't think -- 16 we're just following up on a promise we made. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion for approval. 18 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: I have a motion and a second 20 for approval. Any further question or discussion? All in 21 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 22 (Commissioners Williams, Letz, and Nicholson voted in favor of the motion.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed? 24 (Commissioner Baldwin voted against the 25 motion.) 8-9-04 128 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I oppose. Nothing 2 personal. I just think that -- 3 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: You must have got an 4 A in debating in college. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: The motion does carry. Your 6 management skills as to recollection are quite superior to 7 mine; I can assure you of that, and maybe other members of 8 this Court. But -- 9 MS. PIEPER: Excuse me, Judge. This is also 10 authorization for a hand check. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Cool. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Did you intend for your motion 13 to include -- 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, authorize a 15 hand check. 16 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: And I second that. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Anybody want to change 18 their vote with that added to it? Hearing nothing, the vote 19 will remain the same, 3-1. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: This is what's 21 called, you know, extracting victory from the jaws of 22 defeat, Miguel. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Thank you for pointing that 24 out, Ms. Pieper. Okay, let's get on with the approval 25 agenda, if we might. 8-9-04 129 1 (Discussion off the record.) 2 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Move we pay the 3 bills. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded that 6 the bills be paid. Any question or discussion? All in 7 favor of the motion, signify by raising your right hand. 8 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 9 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 10 (No response.) 11 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Do we 12 have -- we've got some budget amendments. Number one, 13 Budget Amendment Request Number 1. 14 MR. TOMLINSON: Okay. Number 1 is from the 15 I.T. Department, to transfer $400 from Group Insurance, $200 16 to Office Supplies and $200 to the Telephone line item. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. That's 18 your -- under your department, isn't it? 19 MR. TOMLINSON: Yes. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded 22 for -- to approve Budget Amendment Number 1. Any questions 23 or discussion? 24 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Question I have is, I see 25 us using this overbudgeting for Group Insurance on a very 8-9-04 130 1 regular basis, which bothers me a little bit. Not that we 2 overbudget, but the fact that we're using it all. If we're 3 doing this to kind of decrease next year's expenditures, I'm 4 in favor of it, but I really don't like us going and 5 spending just 'cause we have it there. 6 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Starting to sound 7 like a slush fund, isn't it? 8 MR. TOMLINSON: Well, this purpose is to make 9 the year -- the balance of the year. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I understand. 11 MR. TOMLINSON: The rest of the line items. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further question or 13 discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 14 your right hand. 15 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 16 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 17 (No response.) 18 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. 19 Budget Amendment Request Number 2. 20 MR. TOMLINSON: Number 2 is for County Court 21 at Law, Judge Brown. His request is to transfer $100 from 22 Miscellaneous to his Office Supply line item. 23 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Move to approve. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 8-9-04 131 1 approval of Budget Amendment Request Number 2. Any question 2 or discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by 3 raising your right hand. 4 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 5 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 6 (No response.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. 8 Budget Amendment Request Number 3. 9 MR. TOMLINSON: Number 3 is from Judge 10 Elliott, Judge -- J.P., Precinct 1, to transfer $297.95 from 11 his Lease Copier line item, $100 to the Bonds line item and 12 $197.95 to Machine Repair. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 16 approval of the Budget Amendment Request Number 3. Any 17 question or discussion? All in favor, signify by raising 18 your right hand. 19 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 20 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 21 (No response.) 22 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. 23 Budget Amendment Request Number 4. 24 MR. TOMLINSON: Number 4 is for Animal 25 Control, for Marc Allen to transfer $250 from the Group 8-9-04 132 1 Insurance line item to Lease Copier. 2 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Move to approve. 3 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 5 approval of Budget Amendment Request Number 4. Any question 6 or discussion? 7 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Just ditto the 8 comments that Commissioner Letz made earlier. 9 JUDGE TINLEY: All in favor, signify by 10 raising your right hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 13 (No response.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. 15 Budget Amendment Request Number 5. 16 MR. TOMLINSON: Number 5 is for 17 Nondepartmental. We need to transfer $2,030 into Autopsy 18 and Inquest line item. There are funds available in the 19 Address Coordinator's line item. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So moved. 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Second. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 23 approval of Budget Amendment Request Number 5. Any question 24 or discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by 25 raising your right hand. 8-9-04 133 1 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 2 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 3 (No response.) 4 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. 5 Budget Amendment Request Number 6. 6 MR. TOMLINSON: Number 6 is for the jail and 7 the Sheriff's Department. Request from the Sheriff is to 8 transfer $1,238.74 from Group Insurance line item to 9 Operating Supplies for the jail. For the Sheriff's Office, 10 he -- his request is to transfer $394.70 from Group 11 Insurance, $178.80 to Operating Expenses and $215.90 to 12 Vehicle Repairs and Maintenance. 13 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Move to approve. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Wait a minute. 15 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 16 approval of Budget Amendment Request Number 6. Any question 17 or discussion? 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The $394.70 under the 19 second one? 20 MR. TOMLINSON: That's for the Sheriff's 21 Office. 22 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I know. That wipes 23 out -- well, there weren't any -- there weren't any extra 24 funds in that line? 25 MR. TOMLINSON: In which line? 8-9-04 134 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That -- in 2 10-560-202. There is no unexpended budget balance? 3 MR. TOMLINSON: There is. Yeah, there's an 4 unexpended. We just didn't put it in there. But what 5 happens on -- what -- what happens on -- with the jail 6 budget and the Sheriff's Office budget is that when we -- 7 when we budget, we budget as if 100 percent of the positions 8 are filled for every day for the year, and when there's 9 turnover, it causes that line item to be overbudgeted. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I -- that would stand 11 to reason, but -- 12 MR. TOMLINSON: But I don't have anything in 13 my hand to tell you what -- what that unexpended balance is. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. But there is a 15 balance? 16 MR. TOMLINSON: I'll be happy to tell you 17 what it is. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Any further questions or 20 discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by raising 21 your right hand. 22 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 23 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 24 (No response.) 25 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. 8-9-04 135 1 Budget Amendment Request Number 7. 2 MR. TOMLINSON: Number 7 is from Linda 3 Uecker, District Clerk. Her request is to transfer 200 -- 4 $728.74 from Part-Time Salary line item to Postage. 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: So moved. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Second. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 9 approval of Budget Amendment Request Number 6 (sic). All in 10 favor, signify by raising your right hand. 11 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 12 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 13 (No response.) 14 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. 15 MR. TOMLINSON: Now, I have -- I have one 16 from Dawn Wright -- Judge Wright, J.P., Precinct 2, 17 transferring $546 from her Group Insurance line item to -- 18 to her clerk's budget -- I mean her clerk's line item, and 19 $200 from -- from Group Insurance to the Part-Time line 20 item. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So moved. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Is there a hand check involved 23 with that? 24 MR. TOMLINSON: No. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Have a motion here. 8-9-04 136 1 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Second. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: Have a motion and second for 3 approval of Budget Amendment Request Number 8. Any question 4 or discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by 5 raising your right hand. 6 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 8 (No response.) 9 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Do we 10 have any late bills? 11 MR. TOMLINSON: No late bills. 12 JUDGE TINLEY: No late bills, okay. Don't 13 have any transcripts. I do have before me the monthly 14 reports of the Sheriff's Department, Justice of the Peace, 15 Precinct Number 2, Constable, Precinct Number 2, 16 Environmental Health Department, Justice of the Peace, 17 Precinct 4. I thought we had one for Constable, Precinct 3 18 also. I know I've received a copy of it, but apparently 19 it's not included here. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: It was in our box 21 this morning. 22 JUDGE TINLEY: Do I hear a motion that the 23 monthly reports as delineated and presented be approved? 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So moved. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Second. 8-9-04 137 1 JUDGE TINLEY: Motion made and seconded for 2 approval of the monthly reports as presented. Any question 3 or discussion? All in favor of the motion, signify by 4 raising your right hand. 5 (The motion carried by unanimous vote.) 6 JUDGE TINLEY: All opposed, same sign. 7 (No response.) 8 JUDGE TINLEY: That motion does carry. Do we 9 have any reports from Commissioners in connection with their 10 various liaison assignments? 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm sleepy and hungry 12 and I miss my mama. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Only thing I would 14 say about the airport is that Commissioner Letz and I were 15 trying to get the meeting scheduled A.S.A.P., and haven't 16 managed to get that done yet. But I think maybe one of the 17 reasons that it's on the City Council agenda for tomorrow 18 night is there is action for them to change their 19 ordinances -- whatever number ordinances they have -- that 20 apply to the airport governance from advisory status to -- 21 to match up with the new documents. That's on the agenda 22 for tomorrow night. Hopefully, thereafter, we'll have a 23 meeting. 24 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Have you got anything 25 for us, Commissioner Letz? 8-9-04 138 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I believe that meeting's 2 going to be scheduled on the 16th, based on the last e-mail 3 I got from the City. But, other than that, I just -- I 4 believe Commissioner Baldwin and I -- I don't know if 5 anybody else will be completing our continuing education 6 this week in Austin. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: So will I. 8 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Bill as well. Other than 9 that, I will be -- 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Wednesday and Thursday, I 11 believe. 12 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Wednesday and Thursday, 13 be out of town getting educated. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Learning how many new 15 unfunded mandates the Legislature's going to lay out on us 16 for the next year. 17 JUDGE TINLEY: I'm sure there's some hiding. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Commissioner Nicholson, 19 one comment, talking about the O.S.S.F. report. Everyone's 20 looked at it. Our numbers look really good this year. 21 They've done a good job. Activity is up. They've done a 22 real good job. I think the program is run very, very well. 23 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Just following up on 24 that same thing, what we need to do is to get Mr. Arreola in 25 here and to give us a 10-, 15-minute review of what's 8-9-04 139 1 transpired. But my observations are the same as 2 Commissioner Letz; that revenues are higher than we 3 expected, and mostly -- are due mostly to increased 4 activity, but also the real estate transfer activity didn't 5 fall off like we expected. There are a lot of voluntary 6 inspections occurring there. Also, we need to -- same 7 thing. Before we do our budgets, we need to get our Animal 8 Control manager in here and have him give us a report on 9 licensing activity and revenues. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: Reports I've gotten from 11 Mr. Allen are that his expectations have been far exceeded 12 by the licensing provisions. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Judge, are you going 14 to reference this letter from County -- Comal County Judge 15 Danny Scheel? 16 JUDGE TINLEY: You probably need to take a 17 run at it. 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: There is a move afoot 19 to -- for all the counties that are bound or contiguous to 20 Bexar County to be involved in the formation of a -- of a 21 regional mobile authority -- mobility authority so we can 22 have some say in what takes place in the planning of 23 long-term transportation projects and so forth. Bexar 24 County has a regional mobility authority and would welcome 25 the rest of the counties joining that, which they have 8-9-04 140 1 indicated. The problem with that is the same type of 2 problem we've faced in other water issues in the past. We 3 would be sitting at the table with a 600-pound gorilla at 4 the other end, and that's pretty tough for rural counties to 5 overcome without some authority on their own. So, there is 6 a move afoot being spurred on by Comal County, who has a 7 major vested interest in knowing what takes place in 8 transportation corridors, to form a regional mobility 9 authority, and we are invited to participate. The topic 10 will come up at -- at the next Rural Transportation 11 Authority advisory committee meeting, which I'll be in 12 attendance week after next. I'll bring more back to you 13 then. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: The thought being that if we 15 organize -- if the rural counties organize as a -- as a 16 regional-type organization, we may have collectively some 17 ability to -- 18 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Reason with TexDOT. 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. Okay. Anything 20 further? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Judge, I just -- I 22 don't know where this came from, but I have on my calendar 23 for tomorrow at 1:15, Congressman Bonilla is touring Mooney. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yes. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: And we're all invited 8-9-04 141 1 too. I think that would be kind of a fun thing to do. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I do too. I think we 3 ought to join the congressman. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 1:15 on Tuesday with 5 Congressman Bonilla. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Where will he be? 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I've got a call in to 8 Ann Smith out there right now to find out about that, 9 whether we just come through the main gate and go or what. 10 As soon as I get a call back, I'll put a memo out to 11 everyone. 12 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Thanks. 13 JUDGE TINLEY: We have any other reports? Is 14 there a need for any executive session item today? 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Motley has a hand up. 16 MR. MOTLEY: I was just going to update the 17 Court on a recent case. I should say -- 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Okay. 19 MR. MOTLEY: It's a two-minute deal. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: So, at this time -- first off, 21 is there any open -- is there any more for open session, if 22 any? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Are we going to set a 24 budget workshop? We talked a lot about it. 25 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm willing to. I'm 8-9-04 142 1 willing to, and I can. I can't do it Monday. 2 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Or Wednesday and 3 Thursday, or Friday. 4 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Well, no. No, I'm not 5 talking about this week. I'm talking about next week. 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Next Wednesday, all day? 7 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Like, next Monday. 8 How about Tuesday? Letz was wanting to go to Tuesday. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Kathy, would you go 10 get my P.D.O.? 11 (Discussion off the record.) 12 MS. MITCHELL: Tuesday's not going to work in 13 the morning time. Maybe in the afternoon, if y'all have 14 that video tel -- video conferencing meeting at 2:00. 15 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: On Tuesday? 16 MS. MITCHELL: Mm-hmm. Tuesday, the 17th. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Wednesday morning -- I 18 just think Wednesday morning early, we need to crank it up 19 and take -- take the two -- the Road and Bridge and Rusty, 20 and see what happens from there. 21 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: We got to crank it 22 up, that's for sure. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Mm-hmm. 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Road and Bridge and 25 Rusty, and see what happens from there. 8-9-04 143 1 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Okay. 2 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: If we survive that 3 day, then we can go on to the next day. 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Kathy, where am I on next 5 Wednesday? Is that clear? 6 (Low-voice discussion off the record.) 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Let's go ahead and block them 8 all out right now. 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What dates are we 10 talking about? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: The -- 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 17, 18 and 19? 13 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- 18th. The 19th, I'm 14 out of town all day. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'm in Austin in the 16 afternoon. I'm out of town on the 18th; AACOG in the 17 morning, T.W.D.B. in the afternoon. 18 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Wait, now. What? Say 19 it again. Who's gone when? 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: On the 18th, I have 21 an AACOG meeting -- AACOG in the morning, and a T.W.D.B. 22 meeting in Austin in the afternoon regarding Center Point 23 application. 24 MS. MITCHELL: You're clear. 25 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. 8-9-04 144 1 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What day was that? 2 MS. MITCHELL: Wednesday, the 18th. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: But Bill's got a problem with 4 his -- the third -- the third Wednesday, he's covered up. 5 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, third and 6 fourth, yeah. Are you good, Buster, on the Tuesday? Or -- 7 or on the 17th? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We have a 2 o'clock 9 video -- tentative 2 o'clock meeting here. 10 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What about the 11 morning? 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I'm ready to rock, 13 man. Let's do something. Let's do it. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Morning on the 17th? 15 Works for me. 16 JUDGE TINLEY: I've got mental health. 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I don't -- you've got 18 mental health? 19 JUDGE TINLEY: Tuesday morning. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Okay. Thursday -- 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: We could put in an 22 hour, though, before you had to go do that, an hour or two. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What time does your 24 agenda start? 25 JUDGE TINLEY: 9:00. 8-9-04 145 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Your docket. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: 9:00. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How about Thursday 4 morning, 8:00 till 12:00? 5 JUDGE TINLEY: I've got Probate at 9:00. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I guess there's not 7 going to be a budget this year. 8 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: I'll be here at 7:00 if 9 you want to do it that early. 10 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Me too. 11 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Doesn't matter. Just 12 tell me what time. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Are we all the way 14 down to Thursday again? Or can we back up to the Tuesday 15 and see if we can't work something in there early in the 16 morning? 17 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Either way. 18 JUDGE TINLEY: What's the problem with 19 Fridays? 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What's that? 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Fridays. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Nothing. 23 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: This Friday? You and 24 I and Commissioner Letz are out of town. 25 MS. MITCHELL: Yeah, y'all are out of town. 8-9-04 146 1 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: That's a good reason 2 to have it. 3 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, I guess. 4 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Just leave me your 5 proxy. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Trust us. 7 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Y'all look at next 8 Monday? 9 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 16th? 16th is good 10 with me. 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: After we have a 9:30 12 airport meeting. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 9:30? 14 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Last e-mail I got. But 15 that's a 5-minute meeting. 16 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I'm clear from noon 17 till 6 o'clock. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: We can do it on Monday. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Yeah, works for me. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: I've got a couple -- I'll have 21 detention hearings Monday afternoon, probably, at 3:00. 22 (Discussion off the record.) 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: What's Monday? 24 MS. LAVENDER: The Juvenile Detention Center 25 ribbon-cutting. 8-9-04 147 1 JUDGE TINLEY: What time? 2 MS. LAVENDER: 2:00. 3 MS. MITCHELL: You don't have anything 4 scheduled on that Monday in the morning. 5 JUDGE TINLEY: That's a week from today. 6 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How are you on 7 Monday, the 16th? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: My wife's never 9 complained, but I've always felt that I was real good. 10 (Laughter.) Let's see. 11 JUDGE TINLEY: She may not have talked to you 12 about it. 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: No, she hasn't 14 discussed that with me in great detail. But I understand 15 there's a grand opening of the Juvenile Detention Facility 16 at 2 o'clock that afternoon. Other than that, I can be here 17 at 7 o'clock in the morning. And that is a long time, 18 between 7:00 and 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Long time. 19 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I can be here at 20 7 o'clock, too. 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock. 21 JUDGE TINLEY: Shoot for next Monday? 22 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Well, the only problem 23 would be -- 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 9:30. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: -- one us has to be gone 8-9-04 148 1 for a short amount of time. 2 JUDGE TINLEY: We can take a short 3 re-sauce -- recess. Get sauced. 4 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: 9:30? Is that what 5 it is? 6 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I mean -- 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Do you know for sure 8 it's 9:30? 9 COMMISSIONER LETZ: No. That's the last 10 e-mail -- can you call Pat? 11 MS. MITCHELL: She's at lunch. 12 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Call Pat. 13 MS. MITCHELL: She's at lunch. She goes from 14 12:00 to 1:00. She's at lunch; I can already tell you. 15 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: That's right. We 16 wouldn't want to interrupt that. 17 COMMISSIONER LETZ: I think we can set it 18 Monday morning. Worst case, one of us can run over there 19 for that meeting. All we need to do is appoint three new 20 members and adjourn that meeting. We just have to have a 21 quorum for a few minutes. 22 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: What meeting? 23 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Airport Board. 24 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: The formation of the 25 Airport Board. 8 o'clock? Why don't we say 8 o'clock? 8-9-04 149 1 JUDGE TINLEY: 8:00's good. 2 MS. MITCHELL: 8:00? 3 JUDGE TINLEY: We'll post it for 8 o'clock, 4 budget workshop next Monday. 5 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Which one first? 6 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I say Rusty, and then 7 Road and Bridge. 8 JUDGE TINLEY: I don't think we want to limit 9 our budget workshop to that, but we'll put them on notice 10 that they're in the chute. 11 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Definitely do them, 12 though. And we may not survive that, is the deal. 13 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: Are we going to pick 14 another -- 15 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: This year you'll survive 16 it. 17 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Going to be a piece of 18 cake. 19 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Should we try and pick 20 another date? 21 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Gosh, Jon, what a 22 leader you are. This is wonderful. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Following Friday? 24 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Friday's fine. 25 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Friday -- yeah, that'll 8-9-04 150 1 work. You going to send us a memo on all this, Kathy? 2 MS. MITCHELL: As soon as I get it straight. 3 JUDGE TINLEY: The following Friday would 4 be -- 5 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: 20th. 6 JUDGE TINLEY: Yeah, sounds right. 7 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: What time? 8 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Haven't decided that, 9 Bill. 10 JUDGE TINLEY: 9:00? 11 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 9:00. 12 MS. MITCHELL: On Friday? 13 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: Middle of the day. 14 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: How about noon to 15 4:00? 16 MS. MITCHELL: Friday, the 20th? Is that 17 what y'all are talking about? Okay. 18 COMMISSIONER LETZ: 9:00. You can reschedule 19 your golf game, Bill. 20 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: No, no, no, I've 21 already got L.C.R.A. and U.G.R.A. together, talking to each 22 other about something. 23 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Far as I'm 24 concerned, there's nothing sacred about Saturdays. Us 25 retirees can't tell one day from another. 8-9-04 151 1 COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS: I agree with that. 2 COMMISSIONER LETZ: Only problem is that it 3 causes other elected officials and people to come in, and 4 Kathy and other staff. 5 COMMISSIONER NICHOLSON: Yeah, okay. The 6 reporter. 7 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. You must have gotten a 8 glare, Commissioner. 9 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: But there's nighttime. 10 COMMISSIONER LETZ: My wife would get real 11 mad if we start scheduling meetings on Saturday. 12 COMMISSIONER BALDWIN: I have Friday at 13 9 o'clock written down. 14 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. We've got that taken 15 care of, at least for the time being. We will go out of 16 open session at 12:11, and as soon as we get everything 17 cleared out, with the exception of the Court and the County 18 Attorney -- 19 MR. MOTLEY: Sheriff. 20 JUDGE TINLEY: You want the Sheriff in here? 21 MR. MOTLEY: Yeah. He's involved in this 22 deal. 23 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. He's always getting 24 sued. 25 SHERIFF HIERHOLZER: Of course. 8-9-04 152 1 (The open session was closed at 12:11 p.m., and an Executive Session was held, the 2 transcript of which is contained in a separate document.) 3 - - - - - - - - - - 4 JUDGE TINLEY: Okay. Well, we got the clerk 5 back here. We'll come back into open session. It's 12:26. 6 Anything further to come before the meeting? If not, we'll 7 stand adjourned. 8 (Commissioners Court adjourned at 12:26 p.m.) 9 - - - - - - - - - 10 11 12 STATE OF TEXAS | 13 COUNTY OF KERR | 14 The above and foregoing is a true and complete 15 transcription of my stenotype notes taken in my capacity as 16 County Clerk of the Commissioners Court of Kerr County, 17 Texas, at the time and place heretofore set forth. 18 DATED at Kerrville, Texas, this 13th day of August, 19 2004. 20 21 22 JANNETT PIEPER, Kerr County Clerk 23 BY: _________________________________ Kathy Banik, Deputy County Clerk 24 Certified Shorthand Reporter 25 8-9-04